ON ANCIENT REMAINS IN ABYSSINIA. 559 



■district to whicli the tribes from the interior brought their commodities. 

 Greek architecture and art are therefore easily accounted for at Aksum. 

 It is a thoroughly Greek idea to decorate the unsightly unhewn rude 

 stone monuments, and, curiously enough, the realistic idea of carving doors, 

 windows, beams, and storeys is traceable to Greek art in Lycia, Caria, 

 and the southern provinces of Asia Minor. Then we have the altars with 

 Greek vases carved thereon ; tombs with the ciromos and chambers for 

 sarcophagi constructed of huge stones just like those found in Greece. 

 Rock-cut steps cover the hills behind Aksum, just as they do iu Greek 

 cities ; rock-cut tombs and fragments of architecture recall at many points 

 remains in an old Greek site. Early geographers tell us of this influence, 

 and that the kings of Aksum spoke and studied Greek ; and then finally 

 we have the bilingual inscription in which King Aizanes of Aksum 

 records his victories on one side in Greek and on the other in early 

 ^Ethiopian in the fourth century of our era. One can thus readily under- 

 stand how the way was thus opened in Ethiopia for the Christian 

 missionaries from Alexandria, and that Ethiopia was one of the first 

 affiliated branches of the early Christian Church. 



The inscriptions which we brought from Aksum are of a later date 

 than those of Yeha, but show at the same time the Himyaritic script 

 generally developing into early Ethiopian, and form a very valuable 

 series from this point of view, incontestably proving the origin of Ethi- 

 opian, and that it is a survival to us of the early form of speech and 

 writing which was found in the early Sabaean and Himyaritic empire in 

 Southern Arabia. 



Professor D. H. Miiller has been hard at work for some weeks past 

 on these inscriptions and has developed much material of value. Two of 

 the inscriptions are quite new to science, and the others are read cor- 

 rectly for the first time, having previously been copied by travellers 

 ignorant of the complicated script ; but our impressions have now enabled 

 Professor Miiller to produce a correct rendering of them as they stand. 



Some of the principal points of value which have resulted from this 

 study are, first, definite proof of the origin of the Ethiopian language, 

 and that it is a development or rather a dialect of Himyaritic. Secondly, 

 that the Ethiopians were pagans at least down to the fourth century 

 after Christ, worshipping the same gods as the early Arabians, and thus 

 the Ethiopian legend that they belonged to the Jewish religion from the 

 time of Menelek, the supposed son of Solomon by the Queen of Sheba, 

 is absolutely without foundation, and is probably a fantastic story in- 

 vented by the early Christians of Ethiopia, which, whilst it acknowledges 

 their Arabian origrin, at the same time identifies them with the chosen 

 people of God. The grounds for this story, which have had weight even 

 with observers of modern times, are the existence of certain forms and 

 ceremonies akin to Judaism amongst the Ethiopians, which they owe 

 doubtless to their common Semitic origin. Another point made clear 

 by the inscriptions is the origin of certain curious pedestals, which appa- 

 rently in former years carried metal statues, and of which there are 

 between twenty and thirty at Aksum. It appears from the inscriptions 

 that the kings of Aksum after a victory set up a throne in honour of it, 

 which they placed under the protection of their three gods, Astar, Medr, 

 and Barrats. Some were decorated with statues, others were plain, and 

 near them was stuck up the dedicatory stone ; and lastly Professor Miiller 

 proves that the Ethiopians called their country Habaset long before the 



