i68 A SPORTING TRIP THROUGH ABYSSINIA chap. 



covered with pictures, some Italian, others evidently done 

 by natives after European copies, but the majority and 

 the most curious were of purely Abyssinian design. Of 

 the Italian, the two best examples were the Descent from 

 the Cross and the Mount of Olives. These works 

 were on canvas, and were presented to the church in 

 the days when Italy and Abyssinia were friendly, and 

 when many valuable Italian gifts found their way to 

 Ethiopia. The native pictures are done in water-colour 

 on coarse cotton-cloth, pasted to the walls. They may 

 be divided into two classes. Scriptural and historical. 

 Of the former, martyrdom is the favourite subject, such 

 as the beheading of John the Baptist, while the deeds 

 in battle and in the hunting-field of the monarch in 

 whose reign the picture was painted, or portraits of 

 his assembled courtiers, are the usual type of the 

 historical works. In this church is a large picture of the 

 Court of Menelik the first, son of the Queen of Sheba 

 and Solomon. 



Three-quarters of a mile further on, along the ridge 

 to the south, stands the church of St. Raguel, which 

 shared with St. ]\Iariam's the honour of being the chief 

 place of worship of Entotto. Going from the one to 

 the other, we passed the ruins of the old capital, for 

 the most part shapeless heaps of stones, all the wood- 

 work having long since been removed. The fort alone 

 still had many of its massive walls standing, and gave 

 one an idea of its ability to withstand all attacks except 

 those of artillery. Surrounding it was a deep trench, 

 cut out of the solid rock, nearly 20 feet wide, now partly 

 filled with rubble, which must have been a formidable 



