4oS A SPORTING TRIP THROUGH ABYSSINIA chap. 



Other held a long wax taper, the priest again appeared 

 and walked round them, still waving the censer. As I 

 was informed that the service would last for a couple of 

 hours longer, I said I would look in again later, and 

 went to examine the two little belfrys, which stand on 

 the platform on the south side of the church. In one of 

 these are hung two bells, the first of which is very old, 

 with an inscription running round it ; the other was pre- 

 sented by King John, as was the only bell in the second 

 tower. Beside the church, in a spot where the building 

 material for the recent work had been collected, were 

 several pieces of pillars, carved and wrought stones, but 

 I saw nothing bearing an inscription. They then took 

 me round several detached buildings, in one of which 

 were stored all the vestments — which, however, could not 

 be shown without a special order — to a small chapel 

 built over a grave, the domed upper room of which had 

 the walls entirely painted with battle-scenes and the 

 sufferings of martyrs. 



We then descended the two flights of steps leading 

 down from the platform and proceeded, along a cause- 

 way paved with large blocks of square stone, to the 

 entrance ot the inner enclosure. Among the stones 

 used in making this pavement are many carved ones, 

 and among others a fragment of a broken obelisk, 

 decorated with a representation of spear-heads, of which 

 two other examples occur among the fallen monoliths 

 higher up the valley. This fragment, as Riippell rightly 

 remarks, proves that the causeway — and probably the 

 whole platform it leads to — is much more recent than 

 the erection, or rather the destruction of the obelisks. 



