CHAPTER IX
THE ABYSSINIAN CHURCH
Far south of Egypt, in the heart of East Africa, is the kingdom of black people over whom rules the Negus. Everyone has heard of Abyssinia. We made war on its king, Theodore, in 1867; the British army took Magdala and brought back many curious church vessels, books, pictures and garments, which now adorn the British Museum. Still more recent is the disastrous Italian expedition of 1895, which ended with their defeat and frightful losses at Adua. Most people know, too, that the black warriors of the Negus are Christians. One would hardly hold up their Christianity as a model; nevertheless they are Christians. Out here in the wilds, south of the Red Sea, surrounded by Islam, is a Christian kingdom; the sign which crowns their mountains is the cross; these black Africans on Sunday gather to their churches to offer the same holy sacrifice which the Pope offers at Rome.
1. The Conversion of the Ethiopians
What we know of the history of Ethiopia[1] begins with its conversion to Christianity. Before that we can only conjecture that a Semitic people crossed the Red Sea from Arabia,[2] conquered and dominated the native African tribes in the highlands between that sea and the upper Nile. It is a question whether there was any Judaism or Jewish influence among them before they became Christian. It is not impossible. We know that
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