ABYSSINIAN CAPITAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22231, 4 October 1935, Page 15

ABYSSINIAN CAPITAL

VISIT TO ADDIS ABABA TEDIOUS TRAIN JOURNEY DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY A description of tho tedious 486-mile train journey from Jiboiiti to Addis Ababa is given by the Nawabzada of Sardhana in an article in Country Life. "At the uncomfortable hour of 6.30, when 1 was offering my first prayer of tho morning in my compartment, the train lurched and creaked, and with much jolting and hissing we moved off bound for Abyssinia's mysterious capital on a three days' journey," the Nawabzada writes. "Scrub and dwarf acacia trees, stunted bushes or halfwithered grass grew among brown rocks or peeped from the sides of greenishgrey boulders half-hidden by sands. "A more dreary scene it is hard to conceive than that through which this one artery of civilisation rattled its way in the heat-stricken regions of the Danakils to Addis Ababa. Here and there along the line were clumps of thatched huts, with the yelping dogs, where a knot of half-naked, swarthy men with fuzzy hair hold their spears aloft, either greeting or cursing the engine. Which, I could not tell. "The train rumbles on to the higher altitude on the third day. More villages, greener scenery meets the eye, halts become more frequent, and, almost without noticing, a level of 8000 ft. is attained. The air grows softer and, winding through clumps of huts and homes of corrugated iron, the train pulls up at the terminus —Addis Ababa. The Gilded Lion of Judah "As buildings go in Abyssinia, the railway station is not disappointing. An airy structure of arches, like a twostoreyed bungalow in the outskirts of Bombay, it stands out with a peculiar dignity amidst its surroundings; the gilded Lion of Judah outside it leaves you no doubt as to the Imperial emblem of the Ethiopian ruling tribe. "Once in the town, you see both the squalor and refinement, the former in the streets, where the flies of the entire globe seem to reside; and the latter in the darting eyes of Amhara, tho ruling race. The month is September, the temperature is no more than 60 degrees. For in this capital city of Ethiopia, where dwell nearly 60,000 souls in scattered huts and bungalows, more than llin. of rain had fallen during the previous month, thus* cooling the air. "I walked down to the open-air bazaar. At first a sea of umbrellas made of rush-mat work with a knob at the top, opened out before me. They were stuck in the ground of the market, and in the shade of each the vendor, often a woman clad in a voluminous white garment, spreads a cloth in front of her, and exposes her dried beans or flat cakes baked with unleavened meal to the purchasers. "Here and there you see long-parted friends kissing each other on both cheeks, or, beholding a woman friend, bending their knees in salutation, very much like doing a curtsy at an English Court function. Group ol Merrymakers "Next day, strolling under the shade of tho eucalyptus trees in the afternoon when the balmy air seems to lull you to sleep, a soft strain of music stole upon my ears. It had a lingering rhythm, a tune curiously blending with the drawn-out strain of the East. Approaching a little closer, 1 saw a group of merrymakers, two women and four men, engaged in music and dance. The man and the woman danced to the tune, they jumped in mid-air, reeled, turned, and then facing each other, moved their shoulders from side to side. "Then I syiw the palace of the Emperor, whose name Haili Silassie means 'With the Mipht of Trinity.' His word is still law, in spite of a parliament, for the reason that he is, without exaggeration, the maker of modern Abyssinia. His chiefs do not always obey him, but he tries to keep them at their places, which is why he looks 60, although he is only 45. But although ho has a court, a government, a semblance of organisation, yet it strikes one as somewhat imported, not very true to the land, however admirable."