Africa . omWestern Abyssinia—are among the crowd in the a rising ground in the centre of the town a largestone church, circular and double-walled, has newly beenbuilt by the present king. The population of the markettown of Adowa is naturally a fluctuating one ; whenthe king is there with his troops there may be 20,000people; when he leaves the normal population is about4000, out of which number about a fourth are ecclesi-astics of one sort or another. Axum, about twelve miles west of Adow^a, wasanciently the capital of Tigre and a great emporium ofAfrican and Indian trade. It posses
Africa . omWestern Abyssinia—are among the crowd in the a rising ground in the centre of the town a largestone church, circular and double-walled, has newly beenbuilt by the present king. The population of the markettown of Adowa is naturally a fluctuating one ; whenthe king is there with his troops there may be 20,000people; when he leaves the normal population is about4000, out of which number about a fourth are ecclesi-astics of one sort or another. Axum, about twelve miles west of Adow^a, wasanciently the capital of Tigre and a great emporium ofAfrican and Indian trade. It possesses a cathedral builtby the Portuguese and many interesting ruins and monu-ments. Adigerat and Sokota in eastern and south-easternTigre are the most important salt-markets of Abyssinia. ABYSSINIA. 269 The salt is brought hither up the steep eastern edge ofthe table-land from the low-lying salt lakes of the Afarcountry, and the little uniform blocks of it are used as amoney currency all over the Gondar in Amhara, the capital of all Ethiopia,? isperched on a spur of grey rock at the verge of the wall-like edge of the table-lands of Woggara, from the base ofwhich the fertile vales and plains of Dembea stretchsouthward encircling the northern margin of Lake city is divided into two quarters, one Christian theother Mohammedan, and has a population roughly esti-mated at about 6000, though in former times it had per-haps 50,000 inhabitants. Filigree silver and leather work,introduced here by the Armenians, are perhaps the onlyelegant arts known in Abyssinia. The most interestingfeature in the dilapidated city is the ruin of the magnifi-cent towered castle, the palace of the kings of Ethiopia,built by Indian architects under the direction of the Portu-guese settlers, and the noblest monument of their stay inthe country. It was burned by King Theodoras whenhe believed the British troops were coming to invade 270 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. Abyssinia from th
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Keywords: ., bookauthorkeaneaha, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookyear1878
