RELIGION AND EDUCATION. 



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as sorcerers. A few families of Hindu extraction, and naturalised Armenians 

 ornament the shields, swords, and saddles with filigree work, make trinkets and 

 prepare the jewels, necklaces, and bracelets of the women ; whilst a few European 

 workmen, residing at the court, also contribute somewhat to the industrial products 

 of Abyssinia. The fine cotton tissues used for the shamns and other articles of 

 clothing are manufactured in the country, but the red and blue cotton fringes with 

 which the borders are ornamented are usually imported. Like the Mohammedan 

 peoples of the surrounding districts, the Abyssinians are very skilful in the prepa- 

 ration of all kinds of leatherware, such as shields, saddles, and amulets. Most of 

 the people are their own tailors, and bleach their own cloth by means of endot seeds, 

 which answer the purpose of soap. It is a point of honour amongst them on feast- 

 days to wear clothes of spotless whiteness. 



Art, in the strict sense of the term, is wrongly supposed to be unknown to the 

 Abyssinians. Most European explorers speak in very contemptuous terms of the 

 work of the native painters, and certain barbarous frescoes are doubtless of a 

 character to justify their sneers. Nevertheless, the Abyssinian school, sprung from 

 the Byzantine ecclesiastical art, has produced several works which show at least 

 imagination and vigour. In the ruins of the palace of Koskoam, near Gondar, 

 remains of Portuguese frescoes and native paintings are still to be seen side by side, 

 and here the foreign artists, with their insipid saints, scarcely compare favourably 

 with the natives. Nor are there lacking in Abyssinia innovating artists who 

 protest by their bold conceptions against the stagnation of the traditional rules. 

 They even treat historic subjects, and produce battle-scenes, painting the Abyssinians 

 in full face, and their enemies, such as Mohammedans, Jews, and devils, in profile. 

 They also display much skill and taste in bookbinding, copying and illuminating 

 manuscripts. As to the aznian, or strolling minstrels, they live on the bounty of 

 the nobles, whose mighty deeds it is their duty to sing. Hence their poetry is a 

 mere mixture of flattery and mendacity, except when they are inspired by the love 

 of war. Abyssinian bards recite before the warriors, inspiring their friends and 

 insulting their adversaries, whilst female poets mingle with the soldiers, encouraging 

 them by word and deed. 



Religion and Education. 



In spite of the encroachments of Mohammedanism, which besieges the Abyssinian 

 plateaux like the waves of the sea beating against the foot of the rocks, the old 

 religion of " Prester John " is still professed. Introduced in the fourth century, 

 at the period when the political preponderance belonged to Constantinople, and 

 communications were easily established between Aksum and " Eastern Rome " by 

 way of the Red Sea, the Arabian peninsula, and Syria, the doctrine of the Abyssinian 

 Christians is one of those which at one time contended for the supremacy among the 

 Churches of Asia Minor. The Abyssinian Christians, like the Copts of Egypt, jointly 

 forming the so-called " Alexandrian Church," are connected with these primitive 

 communities through the sects condemned by the council of Chalcedon in the middle 

 of the fifth century. The Abyssinian "Monophy sites," following the doctrines of 



