IN the month of November 1910 I started for Abyssinia, a varied journey by sea, rail, and caravan, through beautiful country, occupying six weeks. December 23rd, I am arrived at Adis-Abeba! and at last in the city of Menelik. I am housed most comfortably in a tukle, like one of the round mud huts I saw on my way up, only mine is a superior one, being very lofty and from eighteen to twenty feet in diameter. It is carpeted, and papered with a soft green English wall-paper. The roof is like nothing so much as the inside of a huge Japanese umbrella, with bands of red and black cloth running round it at intervals, to keep the long lathes in place, and has a very handsome effect. The whole of my friend's house consists of a series of these tukles connected with one another by short, mud - built, thatched corridors, and surrounding an oblong garden with a path down the centre and two others, right and left of it, crossing it in the middle, thus giving access to some of the tukles from outside. It is possible to go from one to the other all round under cover by means of these corridors, but as the centre path has a roof to it, this is not often necessary. The climate here is superb, cool at night even to slight frost, but hot enough by day to make sun helmets wanted, and the beautiful blessed sun shining always, except at the stated

times of the greater and lesser rains. The thermometer varies but little all the year round. The garden is a wilderness of roses of good French and English sorts, that blossom from year's end to year's end, and grow into high branching bushes. Scarlet geraniums, verbenas, sweet peas, nasturtiums, and all manner of flowers which one only sees at home in summer, here blow perpetually, and never have I beheld such free-flowering pelargoniums out of doors. The altitude does not suit some people; but beyond being short - breathed and unable to go up even a gentle hill without panting and puffing, I suffer no inconvenience. The air is thin and clear and deliciously clean, a quality I am bound to say the Abyssinians do not share. They are, I think, the dirtiest people I have ever met with. For description of their homes and mode of living in them, all bunched together, one has only to read books of travel in the country by any one who has lived amongst them at all, to realise the truth of this. The city of Adis-Abeba enjoys a remarkable immunity from fever of all sorts, cholera, &c. but this is to be laid to the account of the purity of the air rather than to any hygienic habits of the people. The fever from which I, in common with the doctor and almost all the caravan servants, suffered directly after our arrival, was

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To take the English Legation first, there are besides the British Minister himself, Mrs Thesiger and her little son, the secretary Mr Home, the doctor and Oriental secretary, and an escort of Indian Sowars. There are no ladies at present at the French Legation-the wife and daughter of M. Brice, the French Minister, having lately returned to France-nor at the German nor American. The Italian Minister is also en garçon, though the doctor to the Italian Legation has his wife and children; and the Russian Minister, M. Tchermerzine, has Madame Tchermerzine with him. Major and Mrs Doughty - Wyllie (the English Vice - Consul) were absent during the time I was at Adis-Abeba. The new English Legation and Consulate, the latter a smaller building in the same grounds, and in a line with the Legation house, were just finished, and are solidly built, roomy, and convenient, and beautifully situated on the side of the hill behind the assembly of tukles forming the old Legation, but considerably higher, thus commanding magnificent views of the plain and the mountains surrounding it. I do not think I have ever seen a more beauti

porch of the new building. The scattered houses of the city, at a distance of about two miles, the two high hills of Entoto, crowned each with its circular church of Ragonel and Maryam, the walls of which gleam white in the sunshine, the tukles of the servants dotted here and there, and close by those of a small village, like clusters of mushrooms, and the wonderful blue of the sky, the ever-changing shadows on the mountains, the tall swaying eucalyptus trees planted everywhere by the foresight of the Emperor Menelik, form a pioture once seen never to be forgotten.

There are proper stone-built quarters attached to the new Legation, for servants, and the Indian escort have another building a little way off beyond the stables. When the handsome furniture sent out by the English Government is arranged in it, carpets spread and curtains hung, and the Minister and his family installed, it will prove a very comfortable home, though not as picturesque as the nest of tukles, yet far preferable, being without the risk of a sudden conflagration destroying them in an hour, which, should the thatch of one ignite, might easily happen, and besides, being capable of being defended should any trouble in country arise, and no man can predict what the actual result of the death of the Emperor Menelik may be. That oftkilled ruler is yet alive, and though he rules no longer, still the country is held together by

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the power and prestige of his great name. When first his powers began to fail, and when no doubt he hoped to recover again, he named his grandson, the son of a daughter, his heir, and appointed another relative Regent, the heir being a young boy. It is a matter of general knowledge that the Empress Taitu, an ambitious and, in her way, a dangerous woman, intrigued to get the reins into her own hands, and equally well known is the coup d'état by which her undoing was effected. She is now a prisoner in the Palace, not permitted to leave it, or to receive visitors, and is understood to be in constant attendance on the slowly dying Emperor, who was when in health much attached to her and much under her influence. He is past being influenced now, and all that remains to Taitu is to watch, doubtless in bitterness and wrath, the gradual decay of nature in him. I was I was told on good authority that he is helpless and unable to move, incapable of speech, and supposed also not to recognise any one,-a melancholy wreck of a great personality.

Whilst I was in Adis-Abeba, the Heir-Apparent and Regent, and the whole Court, announced that they were going out for eight days to the summer house, to keep one of the festivals. It had been the Emperor's custom to do this, but for the last two years I believe the practice had been given up.

Instantly the wildest rumours were afloat to the effect

that Menelik was dead, that his body had been removed by night to this place, and that the Court was going to observe the eight days of mourning there. As if to give colour to this, the Legations, Europeans, and populace, were invited to a feast held at the house of Ras Tesamma (Regent), and not at the "Ghibbé" or Palace. But on inquiring for the Emperor's health at this feast, at which I was present, I was told that he was in the same state as usual, if anything a shade better; and a European near me said that for some reason or other having had occasion to go to the Palace, he had himself seen the pathetic figure of the strong man laid low, and the Emperor had almost seemed to recognise him.

Following this we next heard that shortly after the Court had with much pomp removed to the summer palace, and no doubt a noticeable silence reigned in the Ghibbé, the Emperor had looked inquiringly round and uttered the words "Ras Tesamma," "Lidj Yasu," meaning "the Regent and the Heir-Apparent."

As he had not spoken for long before this, a runner was immediately despatched to Ras Tesamma, who returned in hot haste, and was reported to have sat for an hour with the Emperor. This was shortly before I left for Europe again.

The personality of the Empress is almost as strongly marked as that of her august husband. She is reported to have had nine husbands before

he espoused her, and she was then neither young nor handsome, though, I was told by those who knew her, by no means so plain as the photographs and lithographs of her give the impression.

The marriage customs of the Abyssinians are lax. There appear to be three kinds of marriages recognised: two, more or less informal, which can be terminated at the will of the parties; and one, where husband and wife partake of the Sacrament together. This last is indissoluble, and it was by this that Menelik and Taitu were united. There are no children of the union. The Empress's brother, a Ras of some importance in the north of Abyssinia, is now in Adis-Abeba, supposed to be mad, and more or less under surveillance; but incessant intrigues in favour of this person or against that are always on the tapis, and the Council or Cabinet, of which Lidj Yasu is the ostensible, and Ras Tesamma the real head, is paralysed by the distrust of the members of one another, so that business is impeded, and the general complaint is that nothing is ever put through. If the Ras is willing to give a concession, the Council, divided against itself, will not ratify it. Each is afraid of the other, and none, so far as I could learn, above taking bribes: avarice being a besetting vice of Abyssinians, from which not even the highest appear exempt. However, I do not know enough about politics for my opinion to be of any

value, and only repeat what is currently reported.

These feasts are a great feature in the intercourse of the Palace with the people. Every Sunday, I was informed, as a rule there was a Ghibbé feast given to Abyssinians, and about three times during the year only were the foreign Legations and chief Europeans invited. I was lucky enough to come in for two,-that to which I have alluded, given by Ras Tesamma, and one in the Ghibbé itself.

This latter was my first experience. We started at 9 A.M., I on a fine white mule, my host and hostess riding horses. I had been told it was proper to dress as though for an afternoon party at home, so we proceeded at a foot's pace to the Ghibbé. Of course, not being able to wear our solar topees, we had to carry sun umbrellas, which was tiresome, and I took the precaution to have my topee carried, tied up in a clean cloth, by one of the syces, to come back in, when the sun would be high and hot. As a mark of respect my mule was attended by three Abyssinians, one of whom led the animal, while the other two thoughtfully supported me in the saddle. It took us the best part of an hour to reach the Ghibbé, and I got my feet splashed fording the river in the ravine on the way. I suppose my gown of ceremony would have suffered too, had not my officious attendants held it well up till we were over. The water was clear and bright, and not up to the