cereals barley is the most widely grown. The average rate
of pay to an agricultural labourer is about threepence a
day in addition to food, which may cost another penny a day.
The Abyssinians keep a large number of domestic animals. Among
cattle the Sanga or Galla ox is the most common. The bulls
are usually kept for ploughing, the cow being preferred for
meat. Most of the cattle are of the zebu or hump-backed
variety, hut there are also two breeds----one large, the other
resembling the Jersey cattle---which are straight-backed.
The horns of the zebu variety are sometimes four feet long.
Sheep, of which there are very large flocks, belong to the short
and fat-tailed variety. The majority are not wool-bearing,
but in one district a very small black sheep is raised for
wool. The small mountain breed of sheep weigh no more than 20
to 30 lb. apiece. Goats are of both the long and short-haired
varieties. The horns of the large goats are often thirty
inches in length and stand up straight from the head. The
goats from the Arusi Galla country have fine silky hair which
is sometimes sixteen inches long. The meat of both sheep and
goats is excellent; that of the latter is preferred by the
natives. In 1904 the estimated number of sheep and goats
in the country was 20,000,000. Large quantities of butter,
generally rancid, are made from the milk of cows, goats and
sheep. In the Leka province small black pigs are bred in
considerable numbers. The horses (very numerous) are small hut
strong; they are generally about 14 hands in height. The best
breeds come from the Shoa uplands. The ass is also small and
strong; and the mule, bred in large numbers, is of excellent
quality, and both as a transport animal and as a mount is
preferred to the horse. The mule thrives in every condition
of climate, is fever-proof, travels over the most difficult
mountain passes with absolute security, and can carry with
ease a load of 200 lb. The average height of a mule is 124
hands. The country is admirably adapted for stock-raising.
(9) Minerals.---In the south and south-west provinces
placer gold mines by the banks of watercourses are worked by
Gallas as an industry subsidiary to tending their flocks and
fields. In the Wallega district are veins of gold-bearing
quartz, mined to a certain extent. There are also gold
mines in southern Shoa The annual output of gold is worth not
less than L. 500,000. Only a small proportion is exported.
Besides gold, silver, iron, coal and other minerals are
found. Rock-salt is obtained from the province of Tigre.
Trade and Currency.---Abyssinia being without seaports,
the external trade is through Massawa (Italian) in the
north, Jibuti (French), Zaila and Berbera (British) in the
south, and for all these ports Aden is a distributing
centre. For Tigre and Amhara products Massawa is the best
port, for the rest of the empire, Jibuti. For southern
Abyssinia, Kaffa and Galla lands, Harrar is the great
entrepot, goods being forwarded thence to Jibuti and the other
Somaliland ports. There is also a considerable trade with the
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan through the frontier towns of Rosaires and
Gallabat. At the French and British ports thore is freedom
of trade, but on goods for Abyssinia entering Massawa a
discriminating tax is levied if they are not imported from Italy.
The chief articles of export are coffee, skins, ivory, civet,
ostrich feathers, gum, pepper, kat plant (used by Moslems for
its stimulating properties), gold (in small quantities) and
live stock. The trade in skins is mainly with the L 1ited
States through Aden; America also takes a large proportion
of the coffee exported. For live stock there is a good
trade with Madagascar. The chief imports are cotton goods,
the yearly value of this trade being fully L. 250,000; the
sheetings are largely American; the remainder English and
Indian. No other article of import approaches cotton in
importance, but a considerable trade is done in arms and
ammunition, rice, sugar, flour and other foods, and a still
larger trade in candles and matches (from Sweden), oil,
carpets (oriental and European), hats and umbrellas. Commerce
long remained in a backward condition; but under the Emperor
Menelek II. efforts were made to develop the resources of
the country, and in 1905 the total volume of trade exceeded
Until the end of the 19th century the usual currency was the
Maria Theresa dollar, bars of rock-salt and cartridges. In
1894 a new coinage was introduced, with the Menelek dollar
or talari, worth about two shillings, as the standard.
This new coinage gradually superseded the older currency.
In 1905 the Bank of Abyssinia, the first banking house in the
country, was founded, with its headquarters at Adis Ababa.
The bank, which was granted a monopoly of banking business in
the empire for fifty years, has a capital of L. 500,000, has
the power to issue notes, to mint the Abyssinian coinage,
and to engage in commercial operations. It was founded under
Egyptian law by the National Bank of Egypt, which institution
had previously obtained a concession from the emperor Menelek.
(10) Government.---The political institutions are of a feudal
character. Within their provinces the rases (princes)
exercise large powers. The emperor, styled negus negusti
(king of kings), is occasionally assisted by a council of
rases. In October 1907 an imperial decree announced the
constitution of a cabinet on European lines, ministers
being appointed to the portfolios of foreign affairs, war,
commerce, justice and finance. The legal system is said to
be based on the Justinian code. From the decisions of the
judges there is a right of appeal to the emperor. The chief
judicial official is known as the affh-negus (breath of the
king). The Abyssinian church (q.v.) is presided over
by an abuna, or archbishop. The land is not held in fee
simple, but is subject to the control of the emperor or the
church. Revenue is derived from an ad valorem tax on all
imports; the purchase and sale of animals; from royalties on
trading concessions, and in other ways, including fees for
the administration of justice. Education, of a rudimentary
character, is given by the clergy. In 1907 a system of compulsory
education ``of all male children over the age of 12'' was
decreed. The education was to be state provided, Coptic teachers
were brought from Egypt and school buildings were erected.
The Abyssinian calendar is as follows:---The Abyssinian year
of 365 days (366 in leap-year) begins on the 1st of Maskarram,
which corresponds to about the 10th of September. The
months have thirty days each, and are thus named: Maskarram,
Tekemt, Hadar, Tahsas, Tarr, Yekatit, Magawit, Miaziah,
Genbot, Sanni, Hamle, Nas'hi. The remaining five days in
the year, termed Pagmen or Quaggimi (six in leap-year, the
extra day being named Kadis Yohannis), are put in at the
end and treated as holidays. Abyssinian reckoning is about
seven years eight months behind the Gregorian. Festivals,
such as Easter, fall a week later than in western Europe.
Army.--A small standing army is maintained in each province
of Abyssinia proper. Every able-bodied Abyssinian is expected
to join the army in case of need, and a force, well armed with
modern weapons, approaching 250,000 can be placed in the field.
The cavalry is chiefly composed of Galla horsemen. (F. R. C.)
ETHNOLOGY (i1) The population of the empire is estimated
at from 3,500,000 to 5,000,000. The inhabitants consist
mainly of the Abyssinians, the Galla and the Somali (the two
last-named peoples are separately noticed). Of non-African
races the most numerous are Armenians, Indians, Jews and
Greeks. There is a small colony of British, French, Italians and
Russians. The following remarks apply solely to Abyssinia
proper and its inhabitants. It should be remembered that the
term ``Abyssinian'' is purely geographical, and has little
or no ethnical significance; it is derived from the Arabic
Habesh, ``mixed,'' and was a derisive name applied by the
Arabs to the heterogeneous inhabitants of the Abyssinian plateau.
Abyssinia appears to have been originally peopled by the eastern
branch of the Hamitic family, which has occupied this region
from the remotest times, and still constitutes the great bulk
of its inhabitants, though the higher classes are now strongly
Semitized. The prevailing colour in the central provinces
(Amhara, Gojam) is a deep brown, northwards (Tigre, Lasta)
it is a pale olive, and here even fair complexions are
seen. Southwards (Shoa, Kobbo, Amuru) a decided chocolate
and almost sooty black is the rule. Many of the people
are distinctly negroid, with big lips, small nose, broad
at the base, and frizzly or curly black hair. The negroid
element in the population is due chiefly to the number of
negro women who have been imported into the harems of the
Abyssinians. The majority, however, may be described as a
mixed Hamito-Semitic people, who are in general well formed and
handsome, with straight and regular features, lively eyes,
hair long and straight or somewhat curled and in colour dark
olive, approaching to black. The Galla, who came originally
from the south, are not found in many parts of the country,
but predominate in the Wollo district, between Shoa and
Amhara. It is from the Galla that the Abyssinian army is
largely recruited, and, indeed, there are few of the chiefs
who have not an admixture of Galla blood in their veins.
As regards language, several of the indigenous groups, such as
the Khamtas of Lasta, the Agau or Agaos of Agaumeder (``Agao
land'') and the Falashas (q.v.), the so-called ``Jews''
of Abyssinia, still speak rude dialects of the old Hamitic
tongue. But the official language and that of all the
upper classes is of Semitic origin, derived from the ancient
Himyaritic, which is the most archaic member of the Semitic
linguistic family. Geez, as it is called, was introduced
with the first immigrants from Yemen, and although no longer
spoken is still studied as the liturgical language of the
Abyssinian Christians. Its literature consists of numerous
translations of Jewish, Greek and Arabic works, besides a
valuable version of the Bible. (See ETHIOPIA.) The best
modern representative of Geez is the Tigrina of Tigre and
Lasta, which is much purer but less cultivated than the Amharic
dialect, which is used in state documents, is current in the
central and southern provinces and is much affected by Hamitic
elements. All are written in a peculiar syllabic script
which, un- like all other Semitic forms, runs from left to
right, and is derived from that of the Sabaeans and Minaeans,
still extant in the very old rock-inscriptions of south Arabia.
The hybridism of the Abyssinians is reflected in their
political and social institutions, and especially in their
religious beliefs and practices. On a seething mass of African
heathendom, already in early times affected by primitive
Semitic ideas, was suddenly imposed a form of Christianity
which became the state religion. While the various ethnical
elements have been merged in the composite Abyssinian nation,
the primitive and more advanced religious ideas have nowhere
been fused in a uniform Christian system. Foreigners are
often surprised at the strange mixture of savagery and lofty
notions in a Christian community which, for instance, accounts
accidental manslaughter as wilful murder. Recourse is still
had to dreams as a means of detecting crime. A priest is
summoned, and, if his prayers and curses fail, a small boy is
