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J. THEODORE BENT, F.S.A., F.R.G.S.

AUTHOR OF THE RUINED CITIES OF MASHONALAND ETC.

WITH A CHAPTER BY PROF. H. D. MÜLLER
ON THE INSCRIPTIONS FROM YEHA AND AKSUM, AND
AN APPENDIX ON THE MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTER OF THE
ABYSSINIANS, BY J. G. GARSON, M.D., V.P.A.I.

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LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.

AND NEW YORK: 15 EAST 16th STREET

1893

All rights reserved

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PREFACE

THE FOLLOWING PAGES stand as a record of a four months' journey, which my wife and I made in Abyssinia at the beginning of this year; Aksum, the sacred city of the Ethiopians, and the ancient capital of the country, being the object towards which our steps were directed.

Thanks to the kindly collaboration of Professor D. H. MÜLLER of Vienna, the archæological results prove of the highest interest, and present us with another chapter in the early history of what German writers speak of as proto-Arabian enterprise; a history, which research is only just now beginning to unfold, and which will, I feel confident, as discovery follows discovery, place before our view a vast, powerful, and commercial empire, almost outside the limits of the then known world, contemporaneous with the best days of Egypt, Phoenicia, Greece, and Rome-an empire which extended its discoveries to parts of the world which are now only being re

discovered, and possessing a commerce which supplied the ancient world with its most valued luxuries— spices, rare woods, ivory, gold and precious stones. These products came not from Arabia itself, but were collected at various centres by the enterprise of the merchants of Sabæa.

The impressions of inscriptions which we took, and the photographs of the ruins, now place the ́ Sabæans of Arabia by incontrovertible documentary evidence in the heart of Abyssinia as early as the 7th or 8th century B.C., whilst at the same time they show that paganism continued as the national religion down to a much later epoch than is supposed, and that the Judaic influence in that country and the early conversion to Christianity may be relegated to the chapter of myths, as far as this portion of Ethiopia is concerned.

I have endeavoured to set out our experiences in the country in as simple a narrative form as possible, giving special attention to the religious observances of the primitive church, which we came across on our way, and the manners and customs of everyday life.

Our most unbounded thanks are due to the Italian authorities in their Red Sea colony, picturesquely called 'Eritrea' after the Erythræan Sea. Without their aid we should have experienced in

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