Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/222

 the route between Gondar and Massawah by way of Tigré. Dobarik is the place where Theodore caused two thousand persons to be massacred in cold blood in revenge for the death of his two English favourites, Bell and Plowden. North of Simen are scattered the villages of the province of Waldebba, one of the "holy lands" of Abyssinia, the personal property of the echaghe, and mainly peopled by monks.

Lalihala, east of and not far from the sources of the Takkazeh, is another acred region. This town stands on a basalt upland terrace, forming a spur of Mount Asheten, whose wooded slopes rise to the south-west. Seven irregularities in the soil serve as a pretext for its priests to boast that, like Rome and Byzantium, their city is built on seven hills; like Jerusalem, it has its Moimt of Olives, on which stand trees with huge trunks, brought from the Holy Land many centuries ago. The town and the churches are surrounded with trees which, together with the perpetual spring of this temperate region, combine to make this place a charming and salubrious residence. Still Lalibala is very sparsely populated; its old buildings are crumbling away amidst the rocks, while its underground galleries have no longer any outlets. The inhabitants consist almost exclusively of priests, monks, and their attendants. The churches of Lalibala are the most remarkable in Abyssinia, each being hewn out of a block of basalt, with altars, sculptures, and columns complete. Unfortunately the rock has been weathered in man}' places, and of the monolith peristyle of one of the finest churches nothing survives but four columns. The buildings of Lalibala evidently belong to various periods, but it seems certain that most of these monuments must be attributed to the king whose name is preserved by the city, the Abyssinian "St. Louis," who reigned at the beginning of the thirteenth century. The workmen who carved out these curious subterranean churches are traditionally stated to have been Christian refugees from Egypt. East of Lalibala, the depressions of numerous passes, running over the Abyssinian border-chain into the Angot and Zebul countries, contain the waters of the picturesque lakes Ardibbo, Haïb, and Ashango. In this region of alternate forests and pasture-lands are several large villages wherein the sovereigns of Abyssinia have often resided. A convent, formerly one of the richest in Abyssinia, stands on the woody "Island of Thunder" in Lake Haïk. On the bank of this lake is the village of Debra-Mariam, chiefly occupied by the priests' wives, who are not allowed to visit their husbands in the monastery. The waters of the lake were inhabited by a solitary hippopotamus at the time of Lefebvre's visit, respected by the natives and dreaded by navigators. Lower down, on the eastern slope of the Red Sea, stand the large markets of Kohbo, Gura, and Waldia, frequented alike by Abyssinians and Gallas, and described by Lefebvre as veritable towns.

Sokota, capital of the province of Wag, stands at a height of 7,500 feet, north of the Lasta Mountains, on both banks of the River Bilbis, which flows to the Takkazeh through the Tsellari. Sokota is a commercial town, as till recently