YEEHA. 
429 
a region^ yet, knowing that I had done every thmg in my power 
to ensure their welfare, and feeling confident that their stay might 
prove beneficial both to Abyssinia and to themselves, I could not 
in any degree regret the resolution they had adopted, nor the 
consent which I had given to their plans. We intended to have 
stopped for the evening at the house of Ayto Ischias, who resides 
at Gundufta, but finding him absent, we proceeded on to the 
vale of Yeeha, and soon arrived at a house belonging to the son 
of Konquass Aylo, where we halted for the night. 
In the course of the afternoon we went about half a mile, along 
the banks of the river Mareb, to visit an old ruin, seen from a 
considerable distance, called the monastery of Abba Asfe. The 
chief part of the remains consists of an ancient stone building, of 
an oblong square shape, about sixty feet long, and forty-five 
wide, standing on the centre of an eminence, partly surrounded 
by trees, and commanding a beautiful prospect, in which the 
river Mareb makes a conspicuous object, winding its circuitous 
course through the valley. The square building bears the ap- 
pearance of having been very substantially constructed. The 
remains of the walls, now standing, occasionally rise to the 
height of forty feet, measure full five feet in thickness, and are 
formed of large masses of stone, each about seven feet long by 
twenty inches broad, exactly fitted one to the other, so as 
scarcely to leave a visible interstice between them ; no mortar or 
other fastening having been, as I conceive, ever made use of 
throughout the building. The stone composing this structure 
consists of a sand-stone of a light yellowish cast, covered over with 
a hard incrustation, which has materially served to protect the 
