Abyssinia — The Country and People 



99 



to capture slaves from the inferior and 

 more lowly developed tribes as well as 

 to hold them in slaver}' when caught by 

 some one else. Theoretically, there is 

 no slave trade in Abyssinia, and in fact 

 it is pretty well controlled. In the region 

 which I traversed, where no whites had 

 preceded me, there were still one or two 

 slave markets, and I rather expected to 

 see the trade going on openly ; but 

 Menelek's lieutenants know that lie has 

 engaged with European powers to put 

 down the slave trade. They were there- 

 fore surprised that I had been permitted 

 to enter that part of the kingdom where 

 the traffic is still maintained. 



When I asked where I could buy two 

 or three boys, one of the chiefs, who 

 had escorted me for several days, good 

 naturedly said, ' ' You white people have 

 stopped that, but," he said, " there are 

 robbers from whom you maj^ buj' on the 

 sly," and indeed at Wombera a small 

 boy was offered at ni}' tent for 37 Maria 

 Theresa dollars, equivalent to about 

 half that sum in our money. 



There were, however, no public offer- 

 ings, although I chanced upon the 

 market day, but the chiefs had, so my 

 interpreter informed me, given orders 

 that no public traffic should take place. 



Indeed the pre^5ence of a white man 

 on the market ground stampeded the 

 whole performance, not through fear, 

 but through curiosity. There were 

 perhaps three or four hundred people 

 gathered together for bartering, and the 

 whole of them — the last man, woman, 

 and child — arose and followed and 

 pressed upon mj-self and assistant as 

 we walked about, but apparentl}^ with 

 no ill-humor. 



The night before the natives had re- 

 fused to sell us food, but finding no harm 

 come of our presence they changed their 

 tactics and I was able to obtain one 

 chicken and twelve eggs for three blue 

 beads. Eggs are not eaten by the na- 

 tives. Careful inspection of their stores 

 is therefore necessary. 



The next day we met a long caravan 

 of slaves marching up from the country 

 south of the Nile. The caravan seemed 

 to belong to a rather striking-looking 

 woman, who was the wife of a great 

 Abyssinian personage dwelling far to 

 the north. She and her lieutenants had 

 been inShankali Eandand had obtained 

 (by purchase, let us presume) a goodly 

 number of black fellows. These are 

 offered for sale by some bold neighbor 

 or relative. Where these slaves were 

 seen by me in service around Monkorer, 

 which is a considerable town, and in the 

 smaller villages westward, there was 

 nothing of brutality or special hardship 

 of any kind apparent in their surround- 

 ings. 



We passed through a section of coun- 

 try not yet thoroughly subdued by the 

 Abyssinians and inhabited sparsely by 

 the ver}^ people from whom the slaves 

 were drawn. How far these very low 

 savages prefer the debasement in which 

 nature holds them when free to the con- 

 ditions created for them by superior 

 masters, I cannot state. The fact is that 

 a wide gap exists between them and t heir 

 Abyssinian lords, and that the physical 

 surrounding of the Shankali when with 

 the Abyssinian, crude as all that sur- 

 rounding ma}^ seem to us, is far less 

 crude than that which he creates for 

 himself. 



Those who finally accept the sover- 

 eignty of the Abyssinian are not sub- 

 ject to slave-raiding, but are permitted 

 to live peaceably enough in their own 

 fashion at the expense of some .small 

 tribute to the Abyssinian lord. 



The dominion of the Abyssinian 

 power is now established as far west as 

 W^ombera, where I left the most wes- 

 terly Abyssinian post and descended to 

 the Nile plains below. 



The whole region beyond has been 

 terribly swept by war and slave-trading. 

 It is yet without governjiient, although 

 there is a merely nominal sovereignty 

 claimed bv Menelek, As a matter of 



