Abyssinia

ab'is-sin-i-a, a country of Africa. The name is Arabic, signifying mixture, and has reference to the mixed population. Abyssinia occupies a rugged, inland plateau, situated in the interior of the triangle formed by the Nile, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean. Abyssinia has no seacoast. The general surface is granitic, and lies about 8,000 feet above the sea, with huge masses of volcanic rock rising to an altitude of 15,000 feet. The total area, including dependencies, is over 200,000 square miles--about twice that of Nevada. The population is estimated at nine or ten millions. Certain dependent tribes belong to the black race; but the people of Abyssinia proper are a mixture of tribes allied to the swarthy Arabs and Egyptians. They are rude, but they are whites, not negroes. Abyssinian history in Africa is, in a way, similar to that of Switzerland in Europe. Abyssinia resisted Egyptian aggression of old. It was never subjugated by the Romans or by the Moslems. European nations have taken possession of the valley of the Nile on the west, and of the seacoast on the east; but Abyssinia of the mountains has fought for its freedom, and is yet independent under a native ruler. The monarch is styled by the natives King of Kings. He is also known as Emperor of Ethiopia. In 1889, Menelik II was crowned. The form of government is rather feudal. The local chieftains are responsible to the monarch.

In religious matters, the people are neither heathen nor Mohammedan, but Christian. They are adherents chiefly of the church of Alexandria (Egypt), which, as compared with Protestant churches, ranks in age with the ancient church of Rome and that of Constantinople. There are 100,000 priests. The clergy of the region include over 12,000 monks. Schools of an exceedingly elementary sort are maintained by the priests, who teach singing, poetry, and Bible texts. A system of petty courts enforces the laws of the country according, it is said, to the ancient code of the Roman emperor, Justinian. The full number of fighting men is 150,000. The rifle has but of late displaced the ancient shield and lance.

The people are not disposed to raise crops by tilling the soil. They do raise cotton, sugar cane, date palms, and grapes, wheat, barley, millet, hops, coffee, and tobacco in small quantities, but they prefer grazing. Cattle, sheep, goats, small horses, mules, and donkeys are reared.

There are several towns of 5,000 or more population. Telephone lines extend into the interior. A railroad from the coast has been extended 193 miles into the southeastern part of Abyssinia, but for the most part transportation is carried on by trains of mules, packhorses, donkeys, and camels, over mere mountain trails. The natives are eager to buy cotton and woolen cloth. Turkey red is a favorite color. American merchants sell them $2,000,000 worth of gray cotton shirting a year. Soap, incense, thread, candles, tinware, umbrellas, beads, looking glasses, razors, knives and swords, iron and brass wire, guns and ammunition are in demand. The natives have hides, coffee, civet, ivory, beeswax, gums, ostrich feathers, and gold to sell. Trade is carried on chiefly with the British port of Aden.

There is a wide range of climate and vegetation. A belt near the seacoast is torrid, and is characterized by the indigo, date palm, banana, and ebony trees of the tropics. The slopes of the mountains produce the oranges, lemons, olives and the grapes, grains, grasses, and garden vegetables of cooler climes. The elevated mountain regions are given over to pasturage, with here and there patches of oats and barley. The meadows and many of the plants found in the upper regions of Abyssinia remind the traveler of similar scenes in the Alps. In the winter the snow accumulates in the mountains and goes off in the spring with heavy rains, swelling the Blue Nile and the Atbara, two torrents that flow westward into the Nile and produce its annual inundation.