ABYSSINIA, an empire in eastern Africa, known also as Ethiopia. The ruler, whose title is Negus Negusti, meaning King of Kings, is Menelek II, formerly King of Shoa, who succeeded Johannes II. The Italians, who furnished him arms with which he defeated rival claimants of the throne, obtained the treaty of Ucciali on May 2, 1889, under which they claimed a protectorate over all Abyssinia as well as sovereignty in the territories north of Tigre and inland from Massowah which before they were occupied by Italy were dependencies of Abyssinia. Menelek denied the protectorate, and on March 1, 1896, his troops routed at Adowa an Italian army that invaded Tigre and Amhara. Through the media tion of Russia a new treaty was signed on Oct. 26. 1896, by which Italy renounced the protectorate over Abyssinia and Menelek recognized as Italian territory all the country north of the Mareb, Balesa, and Muna rivers.

The area of Abyssinia, including Tigre and Lasta in the north, Amhara and Gojam in the center, and Shoa in the south, with Gallaland and parts of the Somali country and undefined regions in the south and west, is between 150,000 and 250,(0 square miles. The population under the rule of the Negus is estimated at 3,500,000. Abyssinia and Great Britain both claim the region north of British East Africa in which Lake Rudolf is situated, extending as far south as 2° of north latitude, and the western territories to the banks of the White Nile are also claimed by Abyssinia. The Negus has a regular army of about 150,000 troops and can command the services of the irregular troops and tribal levies of his vassals. The active troops consist partly of trained soldiers armed with Vetterli, Gras, Snyder, and Remington rifles, and partly of men armed with native weapons who have lands given to them to pay for their services. The cavalry are recruited among the Wollo Gallas. The Negus has imworted 500,000 repeating rifles of the latest pat

The Abyssinians, who have been Christians of The Alexandrian rite since the fourth century, raise cattle, sheep, and goats, practising agriculture ut little. Coffee and cotton grow wild. The vine and the date-palm thrive. The sugar-cane and barley, millet, and wheat are grown for domestie consumption. Hides and skins, coffee, Wax, gums, dyes, medicinal plants, and civet are xported. Gold from the Wallega country and ory are royal monopolies. American, some InGian, and small quantities of English cotton goods are imported, the American unbleached cottons constituting half of the total imports, which inlude also woolens, matches, cutlery, etc. MeneVOL. XLI.-1 A

lek's capital is Adis Abeba, which has a permanent population of 50,000 and a floating population of 30,000. The currency of the country is the Maria Theresa dollar and a new one coined by Menelek having the same size and value. Coins representing a half, a quarter, an eighth, and a twentieth of a dollar have been minted, and are in circulation, although at first the people regarded them with distrust. Previously the only medium of exchange of less value than a dollar was the amule, which was three pounds of salt, worth 60 cents. In 1880 the whole foreign trade of the country did not exceed $80,000 in value. Now the imports into Harar alone, the chief commercial town, are $2.800,000 a year, and the exports $1,400,000. This trade passes through Jibute, Abyssinia possessing no seaport. This French town, though but a few years old, has 12,000 inhabitants, of whom 1,000 are Europeans. It is the outlet of trade routes from various parts of Abyssinia. A railroad, 184 miles long, from Jibute to Harar, has been built with French capital. It was completed before the end of 1901, having been constructed in two years at a cost of $6,000,000. The Italian railroad from Massowah will be extended into Tigre, giving to northern Abyssinia an outlet through that seaport. The victory of Menelek in the war with Italy stimulated the internal progress of Abyssinia and trade relations with the rest of the world, which have been facilitated by French enterprise at Jiboutil. The reconquest of the Egyptian Soudan by the British has given a fresh impetus to this rapid development. An Italian company in 1901 built a telegraph line from Massowah to Adis Abeba, Menelek's capital, which is connected by rail with Adis Halem.

The boundary between Abyssinia and the Italian colony of Erythrea has been settled by agreement. The boundaries separating Menelek's dominions from British East Africa in the south and from the Egyptian Soudan in the west have been the subject of protracted negotiations with Lieut.-Col. Harrington, the British political agent and consul-general at Adis Abeba. Count Leontieff, a Russian, who explored and occupied the equatorial province of Abyssinia for Menelek, was, early in 1901, appointed its governor and commander in chief of the forces to be raised there. He returned to this region that he had annexed or regained, taking with him a force of Arab and Soudanese soldiers and large quantities of weapons and military and hospital stores that came from Russia, and was joined on the march to Lake Rudolf by a regiment of Ethiopian soldiers raised and trained by Cossack officers during his former sojourn in that country, which he

had led victoriously against the enemies of Menelek in the region disputed by Great Britain. In 1900 King Menelek requested the co-operation of the British in suppressing a fanatical Mohammedan mollah who was disturbing the peace among the tribes on the borders of the British Somaliland protectorate and the Abyssinian dominions. A combined movement of British and Abyssinian troops was arranged. Haji Mohammed ben Abdullah, known as the Mad Mollah, an Ogaden Somali about thirty years old, educated as a wahad, or theologian, a disciple of the Sheik Mohammed Saleh, the head of the mystic order of Tarika Mohamalia at Mecca, persuaded many of the Somalis that he was the incarnation of the prophet, appointed by the divine will to regenerate the people of his race and establish an independent kingdom. Having acquired much influence among the Ogaden and Dolbohanti tribes as a holy man who had made several pilgrimages to Mecca, he organized a body of dervishes who plundered other tribes on both sides of the border. When the mollah began to subjugate the Somalis of Abyssinia, while maintaining a conciliatory and submissive attitude toward Great Britain, the British at Berbera looked with favor upon the movement, which the French and Russians accused them of fostering. The British authorities were inclined to encourage the new sect in their own territory so long as its leader was simply a religious teacher, enjoining regularity in prayers and other rites, and while his influence was exerted to allay feuds among the tribes and he himself delivered up malefactors for punishment. The people of Berbera would not listen to the strict teachings of the new sect, which interdicted the use of the leaf kat, the favorite intoxicant of the coast Somalis, but the tribes of the interior fell under the mollah's influence. At first he abstained from raiding antagonistic tribes in the British protectorate or interfering with the caravan trade, but after the Habba Unis joined him he sent a defiant message to Col. Hayes Sadler, the British consul-general at Berbera, and took up an attitude of hostility toward all those who had dealings with the British authorities, denouncing the British Government and all who acknowledged it as infidels. In the autumn of 1899 he advanced to Burao, 90 miles south of Berbera, with a force estimated at 2,000 horsemen and 3,000 spearmen, with 400 rifles among them. He burned the town of a section hostile to his religious teachings, and established himself in the plain, threatening Berbera itself, and gaining many adherents by his successes, which were attributed to miraculous power. The ignorant believed that he could turn bullets into water and hear all that was said about him in distant places. While the British were making preparations to crush his force with troops from India he retired in November, 1899, to the Dolbohanti. The British thereupon suspended their preparations. The local authorities urged immediate action, saying that the power of the mollah would grow rapidly if the expedition were deferred. The Imperial Government nevertheless deemed delay expedient in view of the state of affairs in other parts of the world. At Burao, Mohammed Abdullah proclaimed himself the true Mahdi, and announced that all Mohammedans who refused to join him were no true believers. He claimed to rule all central Somaliland, acknowledging no British authority excepting on the coast. His unchecked reprisals against tribes which were friendly to the English caused them to waver and to doubt the power of Great Britain to protect them. After looting far and

wide the tribes who still professed loyalty to Great Britain, and killing a powerful chief who warned him of the fate which awaited him at the hands of the British Government, he retreated to the country of the Ibrahim tribe of northern Ogaden, and from that base extended his influence among the tribes on the Abyssinian frontier, seizing the head men and cattle of the tribes that refused to join him. Ras Makonen, the Governor of Harar, sent an expedition of 1,500 men to put a stop to his depredations. Early in 1900 the mollah attacked the Abyssinians at their frontier post of Jig Jiga, but was repulsed with heavy loss. Then he returned to Ogaden and began to raid tribes friendly to the English and the nomadic Somalis who move with their herds back and forth between British and Abyssinian territory according to the state of the pasturage. The raids of his horsemen checked trade and peaceful industry and led to the joint AngloAbyssinian expedition, the plans for which were agreed upon in December, 1900. It was arranged that English officers should accompany the Abys sinian expedition and an Abyssinian officer be present with the British force, and that during the operations the frontier between Abyssinian and British territories should be regarded as nonexistent. Col. Hayes Sadler set about the organization of a force of Somalis, which was not ready for operations till the end of March, 1901. The Somali frontier force, trained and commanded by Col. Swayne, consisted of 1,000 infantry, 400 mounted spearmen, and 100 camel sowars. The Abyssinians had 10,000 men under Ras Makonen assembled at Jig Jiga a month before the British were ready to act. They marched southeastward, and after a series of skirmishes in the Harradiggit district, and the capture of the enemy's camp at Walwal, with great numbers of camels, sheep, and goats, they drove the mollah out of Ogaden, which they raided to avenge a defeat that they suffered five years before, when 6,000 Abyssinians fell in battle. They could not now remain long in this arid country, and fell back in order to reorganize their force in time for the combined movement with the British. They endured great privations, inasmuch as it was the dry season of the year, and the few wells had been closed by the mollah and were only reopened with difficulty. Many stragglers returned in a famished condition to Harar. The force encamped round the wells of Gerloguby, where they held their ground when attacked by the dervishes. They waited until the rains came to enable them to advance, with 8,000 troops accompanied by 25,000 followers and as many pack animals, across the desert 300 miles to the forest region of Dolbohanti in British territory where the mollah had taken refuge. The British force when able to take the field in May advanced from Burao in the direction of Dolbohanti. Ras Makonen had waited impatiently for the British, and was about to recall his troops from Ogaden, where they suffered greatly from disease and privation. When the British did move he organized a fresh force of picked Aby-sinian warriors from Harar to relieve these exhausted troops, who were mostly Somalis led by the Gabri of Fi Taurari. The fresh Abyssinian expedition concentrated at Dagaha Mado, 150 miles south of Harar. It consisted of 10,000 men and horses, with a vast number of camp-followers and baggage animals, and was commanded by Abanabro, whose title was Kanyazmach, or commander of the right wing.

The British, when prepared to move from their advanced base, still delayed operations until they could obtain information as to the movements

of the Abyssinians. While the Somali field force was being organized and trained an Anglo-Indian expedition set out from Kismayu to punish the southern Ogaden Somalis for the murder of an English official (see EAST AFRICA). The influence of the Mad Mollah had penetrated to this remote quarter, and his complicity in this crime was suspected.

The Somalis are an intelligent, athletic, warlike race, supposed to be Gallas by descent, modified by a large admixture of Arab blood. Along the entire coast known as Somaliland they have pushed back the Gallas and gained the predominant position of controlling the outlets to the sea and possessing a monopoly of the trade from the interior. They are proud and conceited, and believe that if they were supplied with rifles as the Abyssinians have been they would become a powerful nation. Under European training they make excellent soldiers. The Mad Mollah professed friendship for the English until some of his adherents plundered a hunting expedition and captured many rifles which he was unwilling to restore. The Somali weapons are long-shafted spears with leaf-shaped heads, javelins which they throw with accuracy to a distance of 40 yards, and double-edged, sharp-pointed, curved swords. The army that Mohammed Abdullah had collected for the jehad or holy war that he proclaimed against Christianity was estimated at 40,000 men. He had obtained 3,000 rifles of various patterns, and was well supplied with ammunition. His cavalry numbered about 8,000, and were the most formidable part of the force, mounted as they were on the Somali horses, that ean cover 75 miles without water.

When communication was established between the British and Abyssinian forces both advanced, the Abyssinians along the Fafan river after concentrating at Gabro, the British from Burao to Ber and El Dab, from which place the camel corps and mounted infantry made a rapid night march through the desert and on May 29 surprised the Madoba and Jama tribes, capturing 2,800 camels and 5,000 oxen and sheep that were intended as supplies for the mollah, whose scouts were encountered at Assura on June 2. The mollah meanwhile made a flank march and attempted to recapture the animals from the zareba at Somala, where he was repulsed by Capt. MacNeill, losing several hundred men. Col. Swayne, an officer possessing more knowledge of the Somalis and their ways than any other Englishman, and who had made an efficient force of his Somali recruits, equal in many respects to the best European soldiery, delivered an attack on the mollah's troops as they were returning to their camp at Yahel, taking them by surprise. When they turned, the camel corps and mounted troops pressed them and with hot rifle and mitrailleuse fire emptied many saddles. The mollah and his troops made good their escape, although pursued for 40 miles. On June 3 the Somalis made another attack on Capt. MacNeill's zareba with 3,000 cavalry and 2,000 spearmen, pressing on in close order and almost succeeding in their effort to penetrate the zareba in spite of the hail of rifle and Maxim balls that killed over 400 of their number, while on the British side only 10 men were killed and 9 wounded. The faith of the Somalis in the religious mission and supernatural powers of the mollah was broken by the result of these engagements. The Jamas, who had borne the brunt of the last fight, made their submission, and many of the Dolbohantis deserted to the British, who had trained men of their own kind to win victories when outnumbered a dozen to

one. The Abyssinian army arrived at Gerloguby on June 11 and aided in confining the mollah to the Dolbohanti country, whence he was driven into the country of the Mijertain Somalis, the last to join his standard. The Abyssinians were able to march 20 miles a day for any length of time, but when the food that they brought with them was exhausted they could not find subsistence for their great number in so poor a country. They attacked tribes that had submitted to the mollah, but in the end were compelled to return to their own country in a thoroughly exhausted condition. The force of Col. Swayne was capable of dealing with the mollah, whose prestige was destroyed, and whose army was reduced to about 2,000. Operating from Burao, the British force routed Abdullah on July 17 near Hassan Ughaz, and drove the remnant of his army into the Haud desert. The British force included a contingent of Indian troops, and the Somalis of Col. Swayne had been taught to shoot as well as European troops, whereas the rifles in the hands of the mollah's men were almost useless. Nevertheless they fought courageously and killed or wounded 2 British officers and 32 men, losing 70 killed and many wounded. The mollah's camp and live stock fell into the hands of the British, and he disappeared in the Mijertain country, his power and influence utterly destroyed.

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AFGHANISTAN, a monarchy in central Asia, lying between Russian Turkestan and British India. The Ameer, Abdurrahman Khan, who was enthroned in 1880 by the British after they had occupied Cabul, the capital, and driven out Yakub Khan, son of Shere Ali, the preceding Ameer, died Oct. 3, 1901. Since 1880 the Indian Government has paid an annual subsidy - first 1,200,000 rupees and in 1893 increased to 1,800,000 rupees enable Abdurrahman to consolidate his kingdom and preserve а strong, united, and independent Afghanistan as a buffer state between India and the Russian dominions. The area is about 215,400 square miles, with 5,000,000 inhabitants. Every eighth man is drafted into the Ameer's army, which has a strength of over 60,000. The regular paid troops garrisoning Cabul, Herat, Candahar, and Afghan Turkestan numbers 37,000 infantry and 7,000 cavalry, with 360 pieces of artillery. Silks, sheepskin garments, carpets, fabrics of camels' and goats' hair, felts, and rosaries are manufactured. Fruits, including apples, pears, almonds, peaches, quinces, cherries, grapes, pomegranates, apricots, figs, and mulberries, are abundant and are exported in the preserved state. Asafetida, madder, and castoroil are exported. Rice, millet, maize, wheat, bar ley, and legumes are cultivated. Copper, lead, iron, and gold are mined in primitive fashion, and in Badakshan lapis lazuli and precious stones are obtained. The imports of Cabul from India were

HABIBULLAH KHAN, AMEER OF AFGHANISTAN.