ETHNOLOGY OF THE TRESENT DAY. 229 



The Ahyssinians. 



The Ahyssinians (Hahhesh, Hahessinians) inhabit the elevated country 

 of East Africa. They are a Semitic stock, who call thennselves by pre- 

 ference Agazians, or frequently also Itjopjawan (Ethiopians), since they 

 have settled among the true Ethiopians. They spring from the Cushites 

 of Arabia, and are called Cush in the Bible, like the people from which 

 they are derived. Even before the time of Moses they must have passed 

 over the narrow arm of the Red Sea, and taken possession of the territory 

 which subsequently constituted the Kingdom of Tigre. The word *' Hab- 

 besh" signifies properly " a mixed people," and the inhabitants of the East 

 African highlands justify the denomination by their actual mixed descrip- 

 tion. The majority of the population are handsomely formed, and of the 

 Caucasian race, with the physiognomy of the nomads of Arabia. The face 

 is oval ; the nose finely sharpened ; the mouth well proportioned, with lips 

 properly formed, and by no means exuberant ; sparkling eyes and well-set 

 teeth ; hair somewhat curled, but also straight. They are of medium size. 

 The greater portion of the inhabitants of the high mountains of Simen and 

 of the plains around Lake Zana, as well as the Felashah, or Jews, the 

 heathen Gamants and the Agows, belong to the same stock, in spite of the 

 difference in their languages and dialects. A second division of the inha- 

 bitants of Abyssinia have a less sharpened and pointed, and somewhat 

 aquiline nose ; thick lips ; eyes dull, with narrow apertures ; and very 

 crisply curled, thick, almost woolly hair. This division includes a portion 

 of the inhabitants of the Abyssinian coast, of the provinces of Hamases and 

 the other districts along the northern confines of Abyssinia. Riippel, the 

 author followed by us in our characteristics of the Ahyssinians, mentions 

 a third, the Galla, including the Shoho. The unprepossessing features 

 of the latter tribe are found quite frequently among the inhabitants of the 

 province of Tigre, and among the soldiery of most other districts. Negro 

 physiognomies occur only among the Shangalla slaves imported hither 

 from the west, and their cross-breed children. With the exception of those 

 who are entirely black, the complexion of the remaining inhabitants of 

 Abyssinia varies greatly, from brownish yellow to dusky blackish-brown. 



The Ahyssinians are described as being quite as corrupt as the Moors. 

 Travellers depict their moral condition in the darkest colors ; the ideas of 

 truth and faith, and every other virtue, may be called unknown to them ; 

 their disposition is made up of all the vices of which the human heart is 

 at all capable, the Christian inhabitants being in every respect as bad as 

 the others. They have no conception of the sanctity of the marriage 

 tie ; and, consequently, immorality pervades all orders of society, and 

 is the more dangerous for the strict observance of apparent decorum. A 

 few good qualities are perceptible in spite of the general corruption, espe- 

 cially the hospitality, protection, and security afforded to strangers. 



Abyssinia shows not a trace of any regular form of government. The 

 entire country has fallen into anarchy, in which the strongest and most 



ICONOGRAPHIC ENCYCLOPEDIA. — VOL. III. 26 401 



