CHAPTER VI. 



ABYSSINIA (ETHIOPIA). 



HE name " Ethiopia," like so many other geographical terms, has 

 changed in value during the lapse of centuries. Like Libya, it 

 was once applied to the whole of the African continent ; it even 

 embraced a wider field, since it included India and all the southern 

 lands of the Torrid zone occupied by the " men blackened by the 

 sun," for such is the exact meaning of the term. " The peoples of Ethiopia, the 

 most remote in the world," says Homer, " dwell some towards the rising, others 

 towards the setting sun." The " wise men " occupying the Upper Nile, of whom 

 the Macrobians, or " Men of Long Life," are a branch, whose manners and customs 

 pertain to the Golden Age, and " those virtuous mortals whose feasts and banquets 

 are honoured by the presence of Jupiter himself," are called Ethiopians by 

 Herodotus. But he applies the same term to the western Negroes, whose culture 

 was scarcely superior to that of irrational beasts. However, according as our 

 knowledge of Africa increased, the term Ethiopia became less vague, and was 

 applied to a region of smaller extent. Now it is restricted to the uplands forming 

 the water-parting between the Bed Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the middle Nile. 

 This is the region known to the Arabs by the name of Habesh, or Abyssinia, a 

 term supposed to denote a mixed or mongrel population, hence reluctantly accepted 

 by natives acquainted with Arabic. The people occupying the plateau traversed 

 by the Blue Nile and other large Nilotic affluents, conscious of a glorious past, 

 proudly designate themselves as " Itiopiavian," that is, Ethiopians. Nevertheless, 

 the term Abyssinia, like that of Germany, and so many others that the people 

 themselves did not give to their country, has acquired amongst foreigners the 

 force of custom, and must be employed to avoid misunderstandings. 



Relief, Extent, Population of Abyssinia. 



The shiftings of frontier caused by the fortunes of wars and conquests have long 

 prevented, and still prevent, these terms, Ethiopia or Habesh, from conveying a 

 clear political signification. Now applied merely to the lofty chain of mountains 

 whose central depression is flooded by Lake Tana ; now extended to all the sur- 



