Abyssinia — The Country and People 



97 



the direction of M. Ihlg. Two other 

 bridges, of stone, one of which I crossed 

 north of the Bine Nile, were constructed 

 years ago under the direction of some 

 Greek priest. 



The Abyssinian seems quite unable 

 to follow the lead of an}^ such work and 

 is capable of only the most rudimentary 

 accomplishments in mechanical arts; he 

 can work a prett}^ good saddle of wood, 

 he fashions a fair piece of metal into a 

 sort of spear, and he can make, as al- 

 ready described, a tolerably tight hut, 

 without a chimney, and weave a loose, 

 rather comfortable, cotton or woolen 

 garment. 



The paltry ornaments which are found 

 in the market places are not better than 

 many that some of the typical African 

 tribes can make. 



Nevertheless the pure-blooded Abys- 

 sinian shows his Arabic origin, as, in 

 spite of this very low development in 

 the mechanical arts, he stands head and 

 shoulders above all ordinary African 

 people in the development of his lan- 

 guage and his religious ideas. 



Except when dealing with the black 

 tribes whom he has subjected, Menelek 

 carries on the business of his govern- 

 ment by written orders in the Amharic 

 language, the common spoken medium. 

 It is of Semitic derivation, as is also the 

 language of their holy books, now ex- 

 tinct save in some remote parts of the 

 province of Tigre. This ancient lan- 

 guage is known as Geez, and in it those 

 books of the Bible with which they are 

 most familiar are preserved. It is to 

 be remembered that these people were 

 Christians when our forefathers were 

 painted blue and worshipped Thor and 

 Woden. A shipwrecked priest from 

 Alexandria somehow made an easy con- 

 vert of the reigning king about the year 

 330 A. D. 



The country is dotted with .big round 

 mud huts, which are churches. The 

 priestly order, although vastly ignorant, 

 is not without power. They inculcate, 



doubtless in good faith, many supersti- 

 tions, but with it all are firm believers 

 in the principal tenets of the Christian 

 doctrine. 



I found by inquiring of a priest in a 

 small far-away village that he was un- 

 able to read the sacred books which he 

 sold to me. He said that was the busi- 

 ness of the high priest. 



Rude paintings are found on the par- 

 titions inside the churches, represent- 

 ing various saints, cheek by jowl with 

 such dignitaries of the Abyssinian social 

 order as had contributed to the making 

 of the church. The artists are not typ- 

 ical Abyssinians. In considerable part, 

 so I was told, the Work of the churches 

 is done by the Falasha, remnants of a 

 Jewish tribe still stubbornly living apart 

 and maintaining the Jewish creed and 

 considering themselves defiled by con- 

 versation with Abyssinians. 



No one can doubt that Jewish influ- 

 ence was at one time very great in this 

 territor}^ and it seems to me highly prob- 

 able that Frumentius, who converted the 

 Abyssinians to Christianity, may have 

 found his task the easier because of 

 some perverted knowledge of the Jewish 

 prophets. 



At a later date, about the year 1000, 

 a Jewish princess, Judith by name, es- 

 tablished her family on the throne, which 

 held sway for something like 200 years. 



Altogether it may be said that the 

 origin of the Abyssinian people fully 

 warrants the Arabic word " Habeshi," 

 from which we have our word "Abys- 

 sinia," and which means mixed. 



It is possible that before the Semitic 

 invaders settled in this fertile land some 

 small influence from the great Egyptian 

 civilization around the mouth of the Nile 

 had been pushed up and up along the 

 stream, through the desert, to where it 

 must have been merged with the native 

 element, presumably black, then holding 

 the soil. I feel convinced that this in- 

 fluence must have been small, because of 

 the very great difficulty with which in- 



