172 



NORTH-EAST AFEICA. 



appearance of a capital. Small churclies surrounded by thickets stand here and 

 there, and on the top of a hill a cathedral, a huge building with a conic roof like 

 most of the civil residences, has been recently built by an Italian architect. In 

 the gardens flourish numerous exotic plants imported from Egypt and Syria. 

 Not far from Adua are the ruins of Fremona, the seminary of the Jesuits driven 

 out of Abyssinia in the seventeenth century. These ruins are avoided by the 

 peasantry, who believe them to be the abode of evil spirits. Near the town Prince 

 Kassai gained the decisive battle which made him the present Emperor of 

 Abyssinia. 



Aksum. 



Adua is heir to a city which was the seat of an Abyssinian empire at one 

 time stretching from the banks of the Nile to Cape Guardafui. Aksum, although 



Fig. 64. — Adua and Aksum. 

 Scale 1 : 270,000. 



^zw^ \ ~ ^^J '< 



38°45- 



t . of Greenwich 



58°55- 



G Miles. 



fallen from its former state, is still regarded as holy ; it is the city where the 

 coronation of the emperor takes place, and fugitives here find a sanctuary more 

 respected than most of the convents. Its monasteries are inhabited by eight hun- 

 dred priests, and by hundreds of youths who are being educated for the same 

 profession. Aksum, the Aksemeh of the Abyssinians, lies some 12 miles from 

 Adua on a romantic site 1,000 feet more elevated above the sea. Here its groups 

 of houses and churches, each surrounded by groves and gardens which clothe the 

 slope of the hill with verdure, are enframed on one side by dark basalt walls, 

 forming a striking background to this charming picture. According to tradition, 

 Aksum was founded by Abraham ; a dignitary of the church, hardly inferior in rank 

 to the echaghé or to the abuna, here claims to be the guardian of the " tables of 



