ETHIOPIAN POMP

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 92, 12 January 1929, Page 24

ETHIOPIAN POMP

A CEREMONIAL FEAT IN ABYSINNIA

Idis Abbaba is a city embowered in >es, great clumps and avenues of le-green eucalyptus, tinged with a licate reddish pink where the new iage is sprouting, with here and there ’ break the monotony a tall dark ben tree not unlike an English elm, FS Mary Gaunt in the Melbourne

g&.” The predominant note is green, the sen of the eucalyptus of Australia, dch is not the green of England. It S a beauty all its own. The keen air ■ like champagne, for all the sun lich deluges the country in colourful ht is the blazing sun of the tropics. The houses are barely visible among e groves of trees; but there are nusrous narrow footpaths all convergj on the city. On the great feast day ese paths were crowded with a mulude of white-clad people, most with e broad red diagonal stripe that detes the Abyssinian soldier. A mighty my it looked on this sunny day in ;hiopia. There came an ofllcer' on a pacing ey mule with a good saddle cloth, a sll-setrup young man, very good iking—very dark, with regular, reled, somewhat aquiline features, dark es and gleaming white teeth. He ight have been the son the beautiful leen of Sheba bore to the Jewish ng. Across his shoulders he wore a jpard skin. He had a buffalo hide leld, and a rifle inlaid with silver. Not a savage certainly. A little :rbaric perhaps, but a very dignified J.rbarlsm. His mule harness was of een ’ and red stamped leather. It ight have belonged to a Crusader. He was going to take his place nongst those bidden to the great ast. He passed to the market place, e great open space in the heart. of e city. It was thronged with onlooks in the white of Abyssinia, spotless ; the case of the rich and well to do, ning to a dingy cream and doubtful ■ey among the poorer sort There cajne the sound of horns and .■Ils; a religious procession, headed ) black Abyssinian priests of the Cop--3 Church, in brocaded gold costumes id wonderful hats, gold crowned, •me singing along bearing on high crosses and thrusting in the ces of the bystanders sacred picres to be kissed. . It was. a great feast.

All the approaches to the palace ounds were lined with white-clad Idiers. Dotted here and there among em were their officers in black" man--38. The polished silver —gold for the merals—on their shields gleamed in le sunlight; their sword scabbards ere covered in red and purple velvet nbroidered j-with gold; while some—- ! gave a good effect —wore gold-edged m or leopard skins, the legs and

tails hanging down their backs like coat tails, and their red and yellow saddle cloths were adorned with the precious metals. The feast was held in a great circular building in the shape of an enormous hut with double verandahs, which was part of wood and part of canvas. The wide vaulted roof rose high, supported by great beams of wood. Half the sides were sheltered from the strong garish tropical sunshine by curtains of white canvas.

The building was crowded. At one side was the raised platform, where would dine the Emperor and his attendants. Below this .was another platform slightly raised above the surrounding press. On it was a long European table, set round with chairs and spread with fine white damask; the glass was irreproachable-; on the china was stamped the lion of Judah. There the European legations—France, Germany, Britain and Italy—were entertained. The beaten earthen floor was strewn with carpets from Arabia. On it were spread perhaps 50 baskets, fitted with large, moistly soft, flat, circular loaves, dark brown, the colour of gingerbread and half an. inch thick. Round these were seated in tens an orderly company of oldish men, with grave, thoughtful faces; men in spotless white, emphasised by black mantles. Snow-white handkerchiefs wound round their foreheads hid their curly hair. These were the leading officials of the State, corresponding, perhaps, to Privy Council, Cabinet, War Office, and principal officers of the army. Shown up against the dull grey of the wall was a company of musicians, brilliant in many colours. The doors behind the dais were thrown open; in came the ruler, attended by the envoys from the European nations, his own principal statesmen and the more important generals. The musicians raised to their lips long gilt trumpets, and blew a blast, sustained and musical, to do him honour.

The pages brought in fresh baskets of “breads,” and took out the horns piled high for another supply of “tej.” • A fresh lot of guests seated themselves. The musicians welcomed them with another long-drawn, silvery blast. A streak of sunlight made its way through a crack in the canvas, and fell on the line of upraised trumpets, making them golden.

So they feasted the other day in Abyssinia, in that country just coming into touch with the modern world as we know it; feasted probably exactly as the Queen of Sheba did when she did honour to her lover. King Solomon, in the shadowy past.