Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/167





ABYSSINIA (ETHIOPIA).

HE name "Ethiopia," like so many other geographical terms, has changed in value during the lapse of centuries, Like Libya, it was once applied to the whole of the African continent; it even embraced a wider field, since it included India and all the southern lands of the Torrid zone occupied by the "men blackened by the sun," for such is the exact meaning of the term. The peoples of Ethiopia, the most remote in the world," says Homer, "dwell some towards the rising, others towards the setting sun." The "wise men" occupying the Upper Nile, of whom the Macrobians, or "Men of Long Life," are a branch, whose manners and customs pertain to the Golden Age, and "those virtuous mortals whose feasts and banquets are honoured by the presence of Jupiter himself," are called Ethiopians by Herodotus. But he applies the same term to the western Negroes, whose culture was scarcely superior to that of irrational beasts. However, according as our knowledge of Africa increased, the term Ethiopia became less vague, and was applied to a region of smaller extent. Now it is restricted to the uplands forming the water-parting between the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the middle Nile. This is the region known to the Arabs by the name of Habesh, or Abyssinia, a term supposed to denote a mixed or mongrel population, hence reluctantly accepted by natives acquainted with Arabic. The people occupying the plateau traversed by the Blue Nile and other large Nilotic affluents, conscious of a glorious past, proudly designate themselves as "Itiopiavian," that is, Ethiopians. Nevertheless, the term Abyssinia, like that of Germany, and so many others that the people themselves did not give to their country, has acquired amongst foreigners the force of custom, and must be employed to avoid misunderstandings.

The shiftings of frontier caused by the fortunes of wars and conquests have long prevented, and still prevent, these terms, Ethiopia or Habesh, from conveying a clear political signification. Now applied merely to the lofty chain of mountains whose central depression is flooded by Lake Tana; now extended to all the