Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/216

 strategical point of view the position has been admirably chosen. To the west stretch the riverain plains of Lake Tana, the most fertile in the kingdom. From the summit, exceeding 8,600 feet, on which his palace is perched, the sovereign overlooks the lands which furnish his army with supplies. From this point he can easily reach the Upper Takkazeh valley towards the east, or the valley of the Abai and the routes of Shoa to the south. The capital of a country engaged in perpetual warfare could not be more fortunately situated. But the royal camping-ground has often been shifted on the plateau of Debra-Tabor.

The village of Debra-Tabor, where the "king of kings" often resides during the rainy season, bears the name of Samara; some miles to the north-west is the village of Gafat, formerly inhabited by blacksmiths who were reputed sorcerers. Theodore had assigned it as a residence for a numerous colony of Protestant

missionaries, employed, not for the evangelisation of the inhabitants, but for the manufacture of harness, weapons, and materials for war. Gafat was at that time the arsenal of Abyssinia.

The watercourses of Debra-Tabor flow to Lake Tana through the Reb, which latter river, not far from Gafat, forms a superb cascade nearly 70 feet high. West of Debra-Tabor, on a lowland promontory of the plateau, are the ruins of the Castle of Arengo, the "Versailles of the Negus," built beneath some large trees, on the edge of a precipice over which falls a cascade, its waters disappearing in the virgin forest. below. Thermal springs from 100° to 107° F. abound in this region. The most frequented are those of Wanziglieh in the valley of southern Gumara. The neighbouring village is the only place in Abyssinia where vines have been introduced.

The basin of the Gumara, like that of the Reb, has also a town famous in the local records. Mahdera-Mariam, or "Mary's Rest," stands between two affluents,