Roman Catholic Church it still exists as the language of ritual, for which reason it acquired the name of lesana mashaf, “language of the book." It is of particular importance from its relationship to Arabic and for the light it throws on the morphology and lexicography of the Semitic languages. On its suppression the Amharic, descendant of a sister language of Ge'ez, was adopted as the official language, and so became the lesana negus, "language of the king." There is evidence, however, that the language was in official use much earlier. It is now the language most widely spoken and written in Abyssinia and next to Arabic the most widely spoken of all the Semitic languages. The first specimen of the grammar was published in Achille Venario's Chaldeae sev aethiopicae linguae institutiones, published in Rome in 1630, p. 43-46.

Tigre is the principal language spoken in the Italian colony of Eritrea, but is spreading very rapidly to tribes of different nationality, and serves as a lingua franca. "It is of great philological interest, since it is the most archaic of the present Semito-Abyssinian languages and, although not a direct descendant of the ancient Ge'ez, resembles the latter more than the Tigriña, which is directly derived from Ge'ez, and since it is almost a connecting link between the Asiatic and the African Semitic." (Littmann.)

"Tigriña is the daughter of literary Ethiopic, or Ge'ez, and is spoken in the centre of the ancient kingdom of Aksum." The main provinces where it is used are Hamasen, Dembalas, Saraie, Okkule, Guzai, Tigrai (Tigre), and Tambien. The largest of these provinces is the one called by the inhabitants themselves Tigrai, and, in literature and by the Amharas, Tigre. With the Amharic adjectival termination the language is known as Tigriña.

The history of Ethiopic literature is divided by Harden into four periods, of which the first, "the period of growth," dates from the establishment of Christianity in Abyssinia in the fourth century and lasted for almost three centuries. Then followed "a period of darkness" coinciding with the gap in the historical record, lasting till the end of the thirteenth century. The renaissance which followed the period of darkness extended from the beginning of the fourteenth century till about 1430. The third period, termed the "Golden Age" of the literature, from 1430 to 1520. The wars with the Muhammedan Arabs and the Gallas which followed between 1525 and 1543 put an end to all opportunity or desire for writing. By their ruthless plundering and burning of the churches and monasteries many thousands of manuscripts were destroyed, some of which doubtless would have been of priceless historical value. "The end of the seventeenth cen

tury saw the close of Ethiopic literature for all practical purposes." The existing literature consists chiefly of translations, in earlier times from Greek and Coptic, and more recently from Arabic. There is no trace of any literature anterior to the Christian era. The translations from Greek have preserved some literature of interest which otherwise would have been lost, e. g., The Book of Enoch and The Book of Jubilees. The translations from Arabic include books on medicine, jurisprudence (e. g., the Fetha Nagast), and history. Of native literature there is an abundance as shown in the following list, but nothing of first or even of second rank, with the exception of some passages here and there in different works and the philosophical essay of Zara Yaqob. With these exceptions the great bulk of the native literature might almost be described as an ocean of dreary prose. Various kinds of poetry were cultivated, religious, warlike, and satirical, but the poetic art with the Abyssinians is even yet still in its infancy. Prosody and meter are unknown, their verse being characterized merely by a kind of rhyme.

Within recent years there has been a revival of the literary spirit, a revival fostered and encouraged by the Regent, Ras Tafari Makonnen. Some years ago he had a printing press imported from Germany and erected by himself in his own grounds at Addis Abeba. It is worked entirely by Abyssinians under the direction of an Abyssinian, about thirty men being employed. In 1925 the Regent founded a weekly newspaper, the Birhanna Salam, "Light and peace." In addition to printing the newspaper several books have also been issued from the same press. These are bound on the premises with machinery imported from Great Britain and operated by Abyssinians. There is also a studio for the lithographic and photographic work for reproducing the necessary illustrations. The Emperor Menelik had previously founded a newspaper, the Aimero, "Conscience," but it was dropped after some time. It has been revived as an opposition sheet to the one printed by the Regent.

Diverse traditions have been preserved of the introduction of Christianity into Abyssinia, but the account given by Rufinus, presbyter of Aquileia, is the one most generally accepted. According to Rufinus (Hist. Ecc. i. 9), who assures us that he had the facts from desius himself, Meropius, a philosopher of Tyre, made a journey to India, taking with him two youths, his nephews, named Frumentius and Ædesius. On their return they touched at a port of "India" (i. e. Abyssinia) on the Red Sea for fresh water or other necessaries. It so happened that a little before that time the treaty

between the Romans and the "Indians" 1 had been violated. The Indians therefore seized Meropius and the crew of his ship and killed them all except the two boys. Moved by compassion the natives spared the boys' lives and sent them as a gift to their king. Ædesius, the younger of the two, was made cup-bearer at the royal table, and Frumentius became the king's secretary and custodian of the royal records (scrinia). When the king died he left instructions that they were to be set at liberty, but the queen begged them to remain and undertake the charge of the king's son and act as regents, until he became of adult age. When the king and his brother attained the age of manhood and possessed the throne as co-rulers, Frumentius and Ædesius obtained liberty to return to their friends. Edesius went to Tyre to see his parents, and was soon afterwards ordained to the priesthood in his native town. Frumentius, on the other hand, fired with missionary zeal, went to Alexandria and described to Athanasius, the bishop, the condition of affairs in "India" and the necessity of appointing a bishop over the Christians in that country. Athanasius ordained Frumentius priest and bishop of India since he was peculiarly qualified to be of most service among those in that country. Frumentius therefore returned to Abyssinia and is said to have discharged his episcopal duties so admirably that he became an object of universal admiration and was revered as no less than an apostle, and named, according to the native record, Abba Salāma, "Father of Peace," the title still borne by the Metropolitan of the Abyssinian Church. Soon after Frumentius was settled in his see the emperor Constantius wrote a letter to Aezanes

1

1By "Indians" Rufinus means Abyssinians. In his time the name India was used as an equivalent of Ethiopia. This was due to the belief of the period that Asia and Africa were joined together somewhere south of the Indian Ocean. From the statement of Rufinus that Frumentius, during his captivity, was led by some divine impulse to make enquiry whether there were any Christians among the Roman merchants who visited or resided in the land, and to give them authority and advice to erect houses of prayer, and to adopt all necessary methods so that Christian seed might spring up in that place, we may infer, I think, that there was already some spark of Christianity in the land. The new faith would doubtless pass down through Nubia, where there was an early Christian church, and Adulis, the seaport of the Aksumite kings on the Red Sea, was an important mart and chief trading center with the interior of Africa. Cosmas Indicopleustes (550 A. D.) has preserved a copy of a Greek inscription at Adulis, no longer extant, which shows that Ptolemy Euergetes had extended his Graeco-Egyptian empire to that place (c. 246 B. C.), and the Periplus maris Erythaei describes a king of Aksum, Zoskales, as "well versed in Greek literature."

2 The account given by Rufinus is reproduced by Socrates (Hist Ecc. i. 19), Theodoret (Hist. Ecc. i. 22), and by Sozomen (Hist. Ecc. ii. 24). Socrates, indeed, translates Rufinus almost word for word. On the strength of Rufinus' statement that Athanasius had been recently ('nuper') appointed to the bishopric of Alexandria (326 A. D.) when he consecrated Frumentius it has been assumed that the consecration took place c. 330, but this date is most certainly too early. Circa 355 is perhaps the most probable date. Could the statement of Rufinus be understood as having reference to the second restoration of Athanasius in 347? The letter of Constantius (c. 356) to Aezanes and Sazanes, the co-rulers of Abyssinia, would seem to refer to the consecration of Frumentius as being of comparatively recent date. The letter exists only in the Apologia ad Constantius of Athanasius, compiled about the end of 356 or beginning of 357, and was most probably written after the third deposition of Athanasius in 356.

and Sazanes against him and asking that he be sent back to Alexandria because he had been advanced to his present rank by Athanasius, a man "guilty of ten thousand crimes," and to replace him by Theophilus, an Arian. The emperor's request met with no success.

Ever since the time of Frumentius the Metropolitan or Abūna of Abyssinia has been a Copt, receiving his consecration from the patriarch of Alexandria. Within recent years, however, the Abyssinians have shown an inclination to shake off their ancient ecclesiastical subjection to Alexandria and elect their own Abūna. It will be interesting to note their procedure when the present holder of the office dies. Christianity does not appear to have made much progress at first and it was a century later at the least before it can be said to have become the state religion in the reign of Ezānā or (Tā)zānā.

3

The attention of European scholars was first drawn to the Ethiopic language in 1513 when Potken published in Rome his edition of the Psalter. This, the first book printed in Europe in the Ethiopic language and character, contains, in addition to the Psalter, the Song of Solomon and certain Biblical hymns and prayers. Another edition appeared at Cologne in 1518: Psalterium hebraice, graece, aethiopice et latine. The editio princeps of the Ethiopic New Testament, in two volumes, Rome, 1548–49, was the next work to appear. It was edited by three monks of the Abyssinian Convent of Santo Stefano dei Mori in Rome, Tesfa Sion, Tensea Waldus, and Zaslaskus, otherwise Brothers Peter, Paul, and Bernardin, with the assistance of Paulus Gualterius Aretinus and Marianus Victorius Reatinus. The New York Public Library possesses a copy of the first volume, which is described at length in the list following. Four years later appeared the Chaldeae sev Aethiopicae linguae institutiones by Marianus Victorius (Mariano Vittorio),5 Romae, M.D.L.II (reprinted in 1630), the first grammar of the language published. Jacob Wemmer or Wemmers of

4

6

Johann Potken, Provost of the Church of St. George in Cologne in the beginning of the sixteenth century, is said to have been well versed in the Oriental languages. But little, however, appears to be known of him. In the preface to his edition of the Psalter he describes how he heard certain strangers in Rome reciting sacred hymns in which he recognized the names of the Virgin Mary, the Apostles, and certain saints. On enquiry he learned that they came from Ethiopia, and his curiosity being aroused he determined to learn their language, the "lingua Chaldea" as he called it. Within a short period of time he succeeded in mastering it enough to enable him to publish the Psalter in the native character.

The Convent of Santo Stefano dei Mori in Rome, the first home of Ethiopic studies in Europe, was established in 1539. (See Rivista degli studi orientali, v. 9, p. 460–461.)

* Successively Bishop of Amerino and of Rieti.

Jacob Wemmer or Wemmers was born in Antwerp, became a Carmelite friar, "linguarum Orientalium peritissimus fuit," and learned the Ethiopic language from Abyssinians in Rome. He died in 1645. A short notice of him and a list of his works is given in the Bibliotheca Belgica, sive virorum in Belgio vitâ scriptisque illustrium catalogus by Joannes Franciscus Foppens, Bruxellis, 1739, p. 544.

Antwerp published his Lexicon Aethiopicum with outlines of the grammar in 1638, a work described by Ludolf as "valde mancum et imperfectum." Our first accurate knowledge of the Ethiopic is due to the labors of the distinguished scholar just mentioned, Hiob Ludolf," whose lexicon and grammar laid the foundation of the scientific study of the language. Edmund Castell's Heptaglotton (London, 1669) made frequent use of Ethiopic in the grammatical outlines of the Semitic languages in that work; and Theodor Petraeus and Johann Georg Nisselius edited and published several Biblical texts between 1654 and 1661. Johann Michael Wansleben besides editing the first edition of Ludolf's Ethiopic lexicon contributed to the volume the Latin index, the Appendix Aethiopico-Latina and the Liturgia S. Dioscori. He was also author of a Conspectus Aethiopicarum quae ad excudendum pareta habebat Wanslebius, Paris, 1671, and works relating to Egypt which need not be particularized here. Beyond these, with the exception of a few Biblical texts by Bishop Laurence and

8

'Hiob Ludolf or Leutholf was born at Erfurt on the 15th of June, 1614. After studying philology at the Erfurt Academy and at Leyden, he travelled in Holland, France, England, Denmark, Sweden, and Italy, in order to increase his knowledge of languages, principally Oriental, for which he showed exceptional aptitude. While in Italy he became acquainted with a learned Abyssinian scholar, Abba Gorgoryos or Gregory (his portrait is here reproduced from Ludolf's Historia), and acquired from him an intimate knowledge of Ethiopic, which at that time was tolerably well understood in Abyssinia. In 1652 he entered the service of the Duke of Saxe-Gotha in which he continued till 1678, when he retired to Frankfort-onMain. In 1683 he visited England with the view of promoting a scheme for the establishment of trade with Abyssinia, but his efforts were unsuccessful, chiefly through the bigotry and ignorance of the heads of the Abyssinian Church. Returning to Frankfort in 1684 he devoted the remainder of his life to literary work and Ethiopic studies. In 1690 he was appointed president of the Collegium Imperiale Historicum, and died on the 8th of April, 1704. The fruits of his Ethiopic studies are contained in the following works: (1) Lexicon Aethiopico-Latinum, London, 1661; second edition (greatly enlarged), Frankfort, 1699. (2) Grammatica Aethiopica, London, 1661; second edition (greatly enlarged), Frankfort, 1702. (3) Grammatica linguae Amharicae, Frankfort, 1698. (4) Lexicon Amharico-Latinum, Frankfort, 1698. (5) Historia Aethiopica, Frankfort, 1681. (6) Ad suam historiam Aethiopicam... commentarivs, Frankfort, 1691; with two Appendixes, 1693-94. (7) Psalterium Davidis Aethiopice et Latine, Frankfort, 1701.

8 Johann Michael Wansleben was born at Sommerda, Erfurt, where his father was a Lutheran minister, on the 1st of November, 1635, and died on the 12th of June 1679. He attached himself to Ludolf for the purpose of learning Oriental languages and after being taught Ethiopic was sent to London by Ludolf to superintend the printing of the first edition of his Ethiopic lexicon and grammar. While in England Wansleben was also employed by Edmund Castell, the great English Orientalist, to assist in compiling his Lexicon heptaglotton, published in 1669 as a supplement to the Biblia Sacra Polyglotta of Walton. Returning to Germany he was sent by Ernst, Duke of Saxe-Gotha, at Ludolf's suggestion, to visit Abyssinia, but his bad conduct prevented his gaining access to that country. He returned to Europe, and in 1665 joined the Church of Rome as a Dominican of the Convent of Minerva in Rome. Sent on a mission to France he was introduced to Colbert, the chief minister of Louis XIV., who employed him to make a second voyage to the East, with instructions to penetrate into Abyssinia and to purchase all the Oriental MSS. he met with. He spent twenty months in Cairo, whence he transmitted to the Royal Library of France 334 Arabic, Turkish and Persian MSS. Unable to get into Abyssinia he was recalled by Colbert, and his continued irregular conduct prevented his obtaining any preferment. As a consequence he was reduced to great poverty and obliged to sell his private collection of Ethiopic MSS. for a trifling sum in order to obtain the means of subsistence. His last days were spent as vicar of the village church of Bouron near Fontainebleau.

'Richard Laurence (1760-1838), archbishop of Cashel, was born at Bath, England, and studied at the University of Oxford. Late in life he took up the study of Oriental languages. He published the Ascensio Isaiae Vatis (1819), Book of Enoch the Prophet (1821, other editions, 1832, 1838), and the first Book of Esdras (1820).