Page:A voyage to Abyssinia (Salt).djvu/321

 to an immense daro tree, of which two different views have been given in former publications. To these I have no corrections to make, and shall only remark, that, by a slight mistake of the engraver, the patera on the top of the obelisk in Lord Valentia's work is delineated as rather pointed, whereas it ought to have been round, as it is rightly represented in my larger views.

This highly wrought and very magnificent work of art, formed of a single block of granite, and measuring full sixty feet in height, produced nearly as forcible an impression on my mind as on the first moment I beheld it: and I felt even more inclined to admire the consummate skill and ingenuity displayed in erecting so stupendous a work, owing to my having compared the design (during the interval which had elapsed since my former visit) with many of Egyptian, Grecian and Roman structure; a comparison which seemed to justify me in considering it as the most admirable and perfect monument of its kind. All its ornaments are very boldly relieved, which, together with the hollow space running up the centre and the patera at top, give a lightness and elegance to the whole form that is probably unrivalled. Several other obelisks lie broken on the ground, at no great distance, one of which is of still larger dimensions. With respect to the antiquity of these monuments, I cannot speak with any degree of certainty: but I should conjecture that they could not have been erected prior to the time of the Ptolemies, as the order of the architecture is strictly Grecian, and was, therefore, not likely to have been introduced at an earlier period. The tradition of the country ascribes them to the reign of the Emperor Acizana which was upwards of three hundred years after Christ: but I should rather be inclined to believe that the workmen of that age were scarcely equal to complete so chaste and highly finished an undertaking. There cannot, however, I conceive, exist a doubt but that they were erected by Grecian workmen from Egypt; as it is known to have been the universal practice of the Emperors of Abyssinia to employ foreign artificers from that country, a circumstance proved by the excavations before described in Lasta and other parts of Abyssinia.

From the obelisk we proceeded to the church, and again examined the short Ethiopic inscription which I