THE CRAB POPULATION

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 138, 7 December 1935, Page 28

THE CRAB POPULATION

Nearly t. -million and a half crab* were landed in one year on a section of the coast of Noi-folk. This was nearly half a million above the average for 32 years: Apparently this small section of our coast-line yields about a fifth of the crabs landed on the'whole coast of England and Wales. But if over five million crabs are landed every year in England and Wales, vhow many remain behind?; We do not know, but the total must be enormous. In the year before this same district of Norfolk yielded nearly two million crabs. The lobsters landed in the same area numbered about. 53,000, about a tenth of the total catch, ior England and Wales,:

j Magdala a great collection of Ethiopic MSS. Amongst these were two valuable copies of "The. Kebra Nagast." Wi 1r n üb, etter Had been established between the Abyssinian" and the British, King John the sue cessor of , Theodorei wrote »£ «*J U £ Lord Granville,. the British Foreigh Minister, in the .course of which he

lw V* \ S- ■? book: called --'Kivera Nagast, which contains the Law of the whPle_ of, Ethiopia; and the names of In* v 1 (Ve-chiefs), and Churches, and Provinces are in. this . book I, Pray you find out who has got' this' book and send* it to me,, for in my country, my people will .not' obey my orders- without itj* .-"" ; ' " y Lord Granville passed on King John's letter to the Trustees of the British Museum, .who, decided to restore.the MSS to the Abyssinians, and this was done an. December,-187-2. ■ - ■;. While the. book- had thus . become known, and the summary of its contents given by Bruce had revealed the nature of its story, no translation into English was made until the present century., Thirteen years ago, however, an English translation was published by -the Medici. Society of London Liverpool, and; Boston . (Mass.). : The.'translation was made by Sir E A. Wallis JBudge,' and was published under .the title qf "The Queen of Sheba, and'her son Menelik, being the history, of. the. departure of God and His Ark of the Covenant from Jerusalem'to Ethiopia, and the establishment "of ■ the' Religion of the Hebrews, and the Solomonic' line of Kings in that country. A complete translation of the Kebra Nagast with' Introduction by Sir E. A. Wallis Budge."

"The T Kebra Nagast" was written about the' sixth century of. the Christian era. lit contains traditions and legends current .for centuries before that date, some of which are undoubtedly historical and some of which are of a,purely, folklore character. . Its contents appear to the ordinary, reader as a regular, amalgam of Biblical, Talmudic, Coptic,.. Egyptian, '.and Arabian traditions told in the style of the Arabian Nights. :.

The.object of the book is twofold. First, to establish the descent of/the Abyssinian kings from the' Hebrew patriarchs through Solomon, and their kinship, through this relationship, with Jesus Christ; • and secondly, to show how the- Ark. of the Covenant was brought by David Menelik, the,son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, from Jerusalem to Aksum, the sacred city of the Ethiopians.

The Abyssinians assert that the Ark of the Covenant has been preserved through all the wars of the centuries, including the wars with the Moslems in the early years of the Mohammedan era. Sir Theodore Bent, author of "The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland," visited Aksum; after he. had completed his. investigations .of , the Zimbabwe ruins, and wrote that the Ark ,was reputed, as.recently.as 1893, to be in the Abyssinian Cathedral at Aksum, but that no European was allowed to see it.

Among- other interesting things in "The Kebra Naga'st" is the solution that it gives to the. crusted question, "Who was Cain's'wife?"'1 '.'.','.■ . ' ■'.'.'

Cain. was. a twin, and so' was .Abel, but they were riot twins together. Each had a twin sister. Cain ■ was1 a dourfaced man, but' his twin-sister was a bright-faeedmaiden: Abel was brightfaced, but: his twin-sister was dourfaced. Adam' gave, the' bright-faced sister of Cain 'to Abel' for : his wife, and the'dour-faced^ sister of Abel .to the dour-faced Cain. * . ' ' ■ . ■. ■ ,'

Another" claim made by "The:Kebra Nagasl" is-that with the transfer of the Ark of the Covenant .fram Jerusalem to Aksunr the throne of God.on earth committed to David had been transferred from Palestine to Abyssinia,, and that the Abyssinian kings are the only ones ,in, the \yorldv today of clear Davidic* descent, .. ■". ■ ..-■