The Highlands of Ethiopia

When the portion of North-eastern Africa that is to form the province of inquiry received its present configuration, the fountains of the deep may be supposed to have opened at...

since Jacob had been lamed in consequence of his earnest supplication to the Almighty, before he met his brother Esau. This nerve is called in Amharic `Shoolada.' I cannot deter...

Divided into endless houses, the majority of the independent Oromo tribes, to the south of Shoa, are governed by hereditary chieftains; and it is only where the Moslem slave-dea...

The advanced state of the season was unfavourable for observations in the department of natural history. Both animal and vegetable life were apparently in a state of torpor; the...

Christianity is the national religion throughout the more elevated portions of Abyssinia; but the wild Galla has overrun her fairest provinces, and located himself in her most p...

Aylia was the comeliest of the dark-eyed daughters of the desert. Sixteen tropical summers had already ripened a form modelled in that exquisite perfection which nature is wont...

Tradition asserts that prior to the invasion of Graan, "the mighty Adel monarch," who overran and dismembered once-powerful Ethiopia, the eastern limit of the empire was Jebel A...

Thus far the greatest irregularity and confusion had prevailed among the Amhara troops, alike during the march and the encampment. A council of war was daily convened, when each...

The disparaging reflections cast by the chivalrous people of Shoa, in consequence of our refusal to slaughter defenceless pagans during the murderous expedition to Entotto, rend...

As the month rolled on, under a cold and pleasant sky, the governors of the adjacent districts flocked with their quotas to Debra Berhan, to be in readiness against the approach...

Throughout this period of irksome detention, the thermometer stood daily at 112 degrees, and the temperature of the small tent, already sufficiently oppressive, was rendered dou...

In Shoa a girl is reckoned according to the value of her property; and the heiress to a house, a field, and a bedstead, is certain to add a husband to her list before many summe...

In common with all other African potentates, Sahela Selassie never engages in war, induced either by public principles, or by national glory, and, least of all, by a love of his...

Giddem was conquered by Asfa Woosen, grandsire to Sahela Selassie, from Latta, the ruler of the first Mohammadan settlers. A succession of deep valleys, stretching eastward to t...

Welcome to all was the first grey light that illumined the eastern sky, and summoned the warrior from his uneasy slumbers. So uncomfortably had the night been passed, that it wa...

His Christian Majesty passed the greater portion of the wet night succeeding the presentation of the British Embassy, in revels amid the foreign riches so unexpectedly heaped up...

Angollala continued bitterly cold throughout the month of December; and fires, although not quite indispensable, were always found pleasant enough. A dry cutting wind from the e...

The appellation of _Habeshi_, "a mixed and mingling people," is aptly exemplified in this strange medley of religion, to which the Jew, the Moslem, and the Pagan, has each contr...

In the heart of the peninsula of Arabia, environed on every side by rocky mountains, there stood, in the middle of the sixth century, a celebrated pagan shrine, that had been he...

In connection with the foregoing remarks respecting the inhabitants of the lowlands, it is now desirable to sketch, for the reader's information, some of those early hostilities...

The annals of slavery point clearly to war as the principal cause of the monstrous crime of selling our fellow-creatures like cattle in the market. One nation having taken from...

Two windy nights, during which it blew a perfect hurricane, were passed in unabated vigilance, owing to the number of ruffians lurking about the broken ground, the waters whereo...

During the darkness of the middle ages, the church of Abyssinia had fallen into complete oblivion; but about the commencement of the sixteenth century rumours were whispered abr...

Having thus happily shaken the Adel dust from off the feet, and taken affectionate leave of the greasy Danakil, it is not a little pleasant to bid adieu also to their scorching...

Numerous were the apprehensions now in agitation relative to the state of the formidable river in advance, whose shallow stream so easily forded during the season of drought, wa...

No royal residence can be conceived more desolate and less princely than the palace at Debra Berhan, "the Hill of Glory." Crumbling walls of loose uncemented stone, patched in t...

Months had passed away since the disappearance of the gay Thavanan, once the favourite of the potent monarch of Shoa. Fallen in a single day from his high estate, and deprived o...

On both sides of the river Gochob, there exist in various quarters isolated communities professing the Christianity of Ethiopia, who, for a long period of years, have successful...

But darkness now reigned within our cheerless abode. Candles that will burn for more than ten minutes together, or afford light sufficient either to read or write, are luxuries...

Ascending by an extremely bad road the broken range to the southward, which commands a fine prospect over the valley of Gobaad, the kafilah reached Sankul on the 17th. It forms...

"The Robi is _not_ dead," was the first falsehood that greeted the ear when daylight had returned. To have told the truth on this occasion must have redounded to the personal ad...

Gradually ascending through a hilly and well-wooded country, still a positive garden of the wild aloe, the road now led through a succession of deep glades, which opened in turn...

After a march of three miles on the 22nd, over a stony table-land thickly strewed with the never-ending basaltic boulders, the caravan entered the territory of the Danakil tribe...

It had been intended to march at break of day to Allooli, the source of Wady Goongoonteh; but the absence of several of the camels, which had gone astray during the nocturnal co...

It rained incessantly with the greatest violence throughout the entire night, and until the morning broke, when a great volume of white scud, rising from the deep valleys, and d...

Shortly after our departure from Ankober, a robbery was committed in the residency; and the delinquents having been duly traced out by the Lebashi, were sent in chains to Angoll...

Rome is said to have subdued the world under the direction of a hen and chickens, but the legions of Shoa and Efat are aroused to victory by the shrill crowing of a cock, which...

Distinguished like the houses of York and Lancaster by their respective colours, "the white house" of Debenik-Woema, composed of various Adaiel clans, who in time of need rally...

Although Warelissan proved nearly seventeen hundred feet above the level of the blue water, a suffocating south-westerly wind, which blew throughout the tedious day, rendered th...

All was bustle and confusion in the small sea-port town of Zeyla. Camels were screaming as the well-filled sacks were tied tightly upon the saddles. The idle portion of the popu...

Ethiops, one of the twelve descendants of Cush, the son of Ham, said to have been begotten and buried at Axum, is regarded by the Abyssinians as their great progenitor. Shortly...

Scarcely had the moon dipped her first flickering beam into the unruffled surface of the oval lake, and lighted the bluff cliffs for some hours previously shrouded in gloomy obs...

Affairs nevertheless began now to assume a more desperate appearance than ever. The night of this day of good tidings setting-in with a storm of dust, followed by a heavy fall o...

The Arab chieftain of the Foudthli, of whom flying parties still infest the deserts of Aden, is renowned for the possession of two thumbs upon the dexter hand--a proud distincti...

On the third morning of their march the hills of Dugodlee were crossed, and the smiling valley of Aussa was seen peacefully stretched at the feet of the invaders. Nothing could...

The tall masts of the schooner of war, raking above the belt of dwarf jungle that skirts the tortuous coast, served as a beacon to the new camp, the distance of which from the t...

Another Abyssinian year had floated away upon the stream of time, and again the return of spring had been celebrated by the green fillet of _enkotatach_, by the tournament in th...

Although we had found small reason to be flattered with our first reception in the kingdom of Shoa, at the hands of a Christian ruler who had sought alliance with Great Britain,...

Angollala, on the Galla frontier, founded ten years since by the reigning monarch, is now the capital of the western portion of Shoa, and during the greater part of the year it...

Many and tragic were the tales narrated of the prowess of the Ogre when the hot blood of youth boiled in his warrior veins. The first feat of his early days, ascribed to the yea...

Strengthened by this signal victory, other points of the Alexandrian creed were attacked in succession; and the time of the Jesuits was fully occupied in the translation into Et...

Humanity to his own subjects must be considered a distinguishing feature in the character of the reigning despot. He is ignorant, but not stupid--to his foes fierce, but not imp...

In an open glade, at the foot of the great mountain range, stands the church of Affaf Woira, and the tenement of Abba Salama, its superior, enclosed by a rough stone wall. Numer...

Surrounded by the myrmidons who collect the royal dues, Ayto Kalama Work was every Friday morning to be seen seated beneath the scanty shelter of an ancient acacia, which throws...

Certain Abyssinian potentates of old are recorded by their biographers to have bestowed in religious charity all their worldly substance, saving the crown upon their heads. But...

Bidding adieu to the hospitable host, we continued our journey along the eastern side of the Turmaber range, through a country considerably improved in point of beauty. There wa...

The second knot in the string of the tedious journey had been unloosed by arrival at Killulloo, which is considered exactly half-way from the sea-coast to the frontier of Abyssi...

Loheita ibn Ibrahim, Makobunto, Akil, or chief of the Debeni and a section of the Eesah, asserting supremacy over Gobaad, as a portion of his princely dominions, which extend fr...

In the lone recesses of a rocky cave reclined the youth Thavanan, lost in gloomy meditation. The hues of care and study were indelibly stamped upon his lofty forehead; and altho...

Immediately upon our return from the eastern frontier, the king sent his confidential page with a message of congratulation on my recent success against the much-dreaded buffalo...

Although the history of North-eastern Africa is very imperfectly recorded, it is certain that Carthage, Egypt, and Ethiopia, early acquired and long maintained a prevailing infl...

An extremely steep and infamous road, intersected by numerous mountain torrents, brought us the following day to Aramba. After crossing the district of Arraba Amba, which pays t...

Sahela Selassie, "the clemency of the Trinity," seventh king of Shoa, whose surname is Menilek, was twelve years of age when the assassination of Woosen Suggud called him from a...

Singular and interesting indeed is the wild scenery in the vicinity of the treacherous oasis of Sultelli. A field of extinct volcanic cones, vomited forth out of the entrails, o...

Some hours before dawn on the 12th, the kafilah was again loaded and in motion across a low belt of stony eminences which gradually descend to the Kori Wady, a long water-course...

In the absence of a standing army, it is truly astonishing by what magic spell the inhabitants of these remote portions of His Majesty's dominions are bound to his rule. Owing t...

Miserable indeed appeared the chance of conversion; and after a fierce struggle of thirty years, there remained not one priest of the Romish faith to administer the sacraments t...

Ere the sun had risen the ensuing morning, we were again in the wilderness, where nearly double the number of Galla had been assembled by the chiefs Boroo and Abbo, to whom, bef...

At Kondie, in the church dedicated to the patron saint of England, lie interred the remains of Woosen Suggud, and thither, according to wont, the despot proceeded on Saint Georg...

Goongoonteh, a deep gloomy zig-zagged fissure, of very straitened dimensions, is hemmed in by craggy lava and basaltic walls, intersected by dykes of porphyry, augitic greenston...

The court had meanwhile removed to Angollala; but a paternal letter from the royal pen awaited the return of the Embassy to the capital. "Are my children well?--have they entere...

A cool cloudy morning succeeding to this dreary, boisterous and uncomfortable night, the caravan was in motion before sunrise across the uninteresting plain of Azboti, in parts...

Abyssinia had long maintained her glory unsullied under an ancient line of emperors, until, in the sixteenth century, the ambitious and formidable Graan, at the head of a whole...

Abyssinia had for fifteen years been left without an archbishop, when Abba Salama, a Coptic youth, nominated by the hundred and ninth occupant of the chair of Saint Mark, arrive...

Extensive morasses, environing the sedge-grown borders of the Muttahara water, proved it to be far below its wonted boundaries, and precluded all access to Fantali, even had the...

Eight bells were "making it twelve o'clock" on the 15th of May, when the boatswain piped all hands on deck to weigh the anchor, and within a few minutes the Honourable Company's...

Izhak's absent camels, which had been kept close at hand pending the issue of this stormy debate, being now brought in, the ground was speedily cleared of the remaining baggage;...

Almost before break of day we were in the saddle; and having passed the lava-blocks which bounded the camp, we came upon a level tract entirely composed of hard clay. Wide-sprea...

In Shoa the preliminaries of a journey are replete with noise, inconvenience, and confusion. Friends come to "see you off," as an indispensable piece of etiquette, and the loung...

Boo Bekr Sumbhool and Datah Mohammad, co-chiefs of that section of the Debeni styled Sidi Habroo, shortly sneaked into the camp at the head of an appropriate retinue of ruffians...

Not a monk is there in any of the lone monasteries of Shoa, not a hermit of the many in her cold mountains, not a dwarf nor a decrepit priest who has renounced the society of hi...

As each evening closed, the appearance over the high range of Bulga was magnificent. Dark clouds, occasionally pierced by a bright ray of the sinking sun, drove in dense volumes...

To be the wife of a true believer, in whatever state of society, from the most refined to the most barbarous, is to be cursed in the fullest acceptation of the word. But of the...

During the reign of Asfa Woosen, grandsire to Sahela Selassie, the independent states of Shoa and Efat were of very inconsiderable extent. Morat, Morabeitie, Giddem, Bulga, and...

Abyssinian despots sully not their dignity by condescending to divulge even the smallest design to the most confidential of their courtiers. In elegant Amharic phraseology "the...

"Reculer pour mieux sauter," is a maxim strictly in accordance with His Majesty's notions of strategy. Twenty days had elapsed since the return of the expedition, when the arriv...

Renowned for his great strength and dauntless heart, Medoko was of a more robust and brawny form than most of his countrymen. There was a bold bearing in his erect carriage--his...

A uniform system of architecture pervades the houses of Aden, nearly all of which would appear to have arisen out of the ruins of former more extensive edifices, now buried far...

A more singular contrast of good and evil was perhaps never presented than in the person and administration of the Christian despot. Avarice, suspicion, caprice, duplicity, and...

But by far the greatest holiday of the Abyssinian year is held on the Epiphany, styled Temkat, [i.e. Baptism] when the baptism of our Lord, by John, in the river Jordan, is comm...

Slowly passed the days of fog, and the nights of dire discomfort, during the tedious detention which followed this unfortunate discovery. From the terrace commanding a boundless...

A review of the nature and actual extent of slavery in Christian Abyssinia, where the exile is sold and purchased--of the circumstances attending his loss of liberty in the coun...

To put down the foreign slave-trade, without first devising honest occupation for a dense, idle, and mischievous population of Africa, would seal the death-warrant of every capt...

Geez, the ancient Ethiopic, was the vernacular language of the shepherds. Until the fourteenth century of the Christian era it remained that of the Abyssinian empire, and in it...

In this unventilated and diabolical hollow, dreadful indeed were the sufferings in store both for man and beast. Not a drop of fresh water existed within many miles; and, notwit...

The reception that we experienced at the hands of the virago who owned this comfortless hovel, had been neither hospitable nor flattering. In the temporary absence of her husban...

A scraggy, misshapen lad, claimed by Aboo Bekr as his own most dutiful nephew, now paddled alongside in a frail skiff, the devil dancing in his wicked eye; and having caught the...

Quitting the boisterous deck of the steamer, and pulling towards the shores of Arabia, a cluster of barren rocks, which might fitly be likened to heaps of fused coal out of a gl...

The hereditary provinces subject to Sahela Selassie are comprised in a rectangular domain of one hundred and fifty by ninety miles, which area is traversed by five systems of mo...

The entire slope of the palace eminence is studded with thatched magazines and out-houses; and these, shame to the Christian monarch, form the scene of the daily labours of thre...

Not many weeks had elapsed since certain substantial merchants of Hurrur, after visiting the shrine at Medina, and making a long and profitable sojourn in Alio Amba, had returne...

New Year's Day, which fell on the 10th of September, was, according to the Abyssinian calendar, the eighteen hundred and thirty-fourth since the nativity of Christ, and it was c...

In the year 330 after the birth of our Saviour, Meropius, a merchant of Tyre, having undertaken a commercial voyage to India, landed on the coast of Ethiopia, where he was murde...

Aden, in its history and reverses, presents the type of many a mighty nation,--it flourished and has fallen. As it once stood, it was the maritime bulwark of Arabia Felix. So ea...

The highlands included betwixt Abyssinia and the equator are unquestionably among the most interesting regions in Africa, whether viewed with reference to their climate, their s...

The day following our victory over the monarch of the forest was passed in the laborious operation of hewing out the ponderous tusks, each of which formed the load of a donkey,...

In the heart of the mountain range of Garra Gorphoo stood a large Galla hamlet--for it has been since visited in wrath by the monarch--situated in one of those sweet locations w...

Although the majestic fabrics, the pillars of porphyry, and the Corinthian domes of early writers, now exist only in the tradition, Ethiopia yet retains the fresh vegetation of...

"May the guests of the Negoos come quickly!--all is prepared for their reception," was the message received early the ensuing morning from the old governor, to whom our party st...

An inspection of the map will show on the eastern coast an extensive hiatus, which, from the scanty reports that have been gleaned, is most certainly studded with high mountains...

I deemed it to be an object of great geographical importance that the flying survey of the kingdom of Shoa should be completed by a visit to the country forming the boundary to...

Meanwhile, during the tedious fast observed by all classes in commemoration of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin, the king continued his residence at Machal-wans. On such occasi...

The first British camp with which the sea-port of Tajura had been honoured since its foundation, raised its head on the afternoon of the 18th of May; when the Embassy, accompani...

The skill of the medical officers attached to the Embassy had already produced its effect upon a nation so ignorant of the healing art. Woizoro Indanch Yellum, aunt to His Majes...

The civil war continued, meanwhile, to rage with great expenditure of life, and with alternate success on either side. Enticed into the plain, the enemy were generally worsted b...

A share of thirty thousand German crowns, the annual profits accruing from the sale of three thousand human beings kidnapped in the interior, renders every native of Tajura a ma...

A canopy of thick clouds clinging to the high hills of Ankober had indicated that rain still continued to deluge the more elevated regions; but on the wide undulating plains of...

Ayto Hierat's crime brought its own punishment. The prominent part he had taken in the event at Boora Roofa, which had so recently covered his royal master with glory, could har...

The models and plans of palaces that had been from time to time prepared by Captain Graham, had imparted to the royal mind a new architectural impulse; and after much deliberati...

From this eventful epoch each sultry day did indeed bring a numerical accession to the beasts of burthen collected in the town; but they were owned of many and self-willed propr...

Another dreary season of rain, and of mist, and of heavy fog, had now set in; the lance and the shield of the Christian had been suspended in the dark windowless hall, and the w...

The King had oftentimes vaunted the extraordinary natural fortification of Angollala by the river Chacha, which for two days' journey to the north-westward rolls through a deep...

The verdant meadows of the Shoan district of Daggee are strangely crossed and intersected by low chains of barren rock, with here and there an isolated hillock crowned by the ab...

The day dawned, and there remained nothing of the late beautiful village of Cherkos. Death and desolation had spread to the very gates of the capital, and the rocky ridge was co...

In due process of time, spite of the denunciations of the fanatic priesthood, the silver and beef of the foreigners attracted the denizens of the adjacent villages, and we acqui...

During the more than usually successful campaign of the Amhara host, an opportunity was afforded us of laying down, as scientifically as very limited time would permit, an exten...

His Majesty had more than once intimated an intention of holding consultation relative to his projected expedition on the termination of winter, and early one morning an express...

A calamity shortly afterwards overtook the Master of the Horse, whose spouse--a gift from the monarch to his faithful subject--was seized with alarming influenza, and became an...

Before daylight of the following morning, Ayto Tsanna gave the word to saddle, and the tedious descent of the south-eastern face of the steep Manya hill having been accomplished...

Medoko had been hurried from the presence, and urged along the rough road with as much rapidity as possible; but people are seldom so unfortunate as they suppose themselves to b...

Hunting expeditions filled up the leisure hours of the busy monarch. Standing on the verge of the deep ravine by which the now deserted fastness of Tegulet is insulated from the...

Easter day, instead of being celebrated on the Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox, is in Abyssinia kept one lunation later. On its recurrence, we rece...

Excursions abroad continued as usual to occupy the royal leisure; and even when rats and horned owls formed the ignominious quarry, the king's Gyptzis were invariably summoned....

A long march across the Sana Robi next brought the troops to Belat, in the neighbourhood of Yeolo. His Majesty, seated upon his cushioned _alga_, halted frequently in the wide u...

It was late on the afternoon of a sultry day in April, which had been passed amid active preparations, when a dark column of smoke, streaming over the tall shipping in the crowd...

Ethiopia is the classical appellation for Abyssinia, or Habesh, the most ancient as well as the greatest monarchy in Africa. It is by the latter title that the inhabitants thems...

Ever since the arrival of the British Embassy in Shoa, the king's attention had been occupied with controversies, which, during a period of sixty years, have perplexed the Abyss...

Thus affairs continued until the sixteenth century, when the invasion of Mohammad Graan led to the total dismemberment of the Ethiopic empire; and Shoa, amongst other of the ric...