AN ABYSSINIAN NOBLE'S DOMAIN.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3198, 28 September 1881, Page 4

AN ABYSSINIAN NOBLE'S DOMAIN.

Separated from the ledge on which I Btood by a deep chasm, an isolated mountain rose from the valley beneath. About 2000 feet in height, it tapered slightly from the base towards its summit ; the sides, rugged and precipitous, were in most places absolutely perpendicular, and fell in a straight line from its dizzy heights to the depths below. A few shrubs crowned its crest, and a solitary palm, overhanging the northern side, waved in the distance ; beyond these but little vegetation graced its form, and the grass which thinly clothed its upper portion was yellow and arid. On the east and south grim black rocks alone presented an inhospitable and impenetrable front, and its general aspect was bleak and barren. In extent it was probably half a mile long by one-eighth of a mile broad, and looked a model robber's stronghold. A deep valley surrounded it, and this was in turn enclosed by endless mountains running in picturesque and crossing ranges. Habitations were nowhere visible, but a watchtower and rudo loop-holed wall ran along the face fronting us. Serramba was an excellent specimen of the Abyssinian rockfortress, of which there are many in the kingdom. Selected on account of natural features favorable to isolation, and added to by man's ingenuity in such manner as to render them impregnable to assault from without, and most difficult to escape from by those within, they have been used in the past for the most cruel and tyrannical purposes. Many of them constitute the state prisons of the country, but it is needless to say that the guardian'of one of these etrong-

holds has unquestioned power to people it with such poor wretches as may be obnoxious to his interests, as well as with criminals who may have justly incurred the retribution of the law. The miserable prisoners on these mounts drag out a sad and hopeless existence, terminated only when tlie fortune of war may throw down their captor from his seat of power, or when in some fit of maddened drunkenness he may order their weary durance to be curtailed by n. death of violence. The putting out of eyes, the lopping of limbs, the sewing up in damp skins to bo afterwards exposed to the sun, with an occasional more wholesale massacre, are all the everlastingly recurring features in past Abyssinian history. It is to be trusted that contact with foreign nations may imbue the people with a gradual distaste for violence and an increased respect for human life, and that the holocaust; of victims sacrificed by Theodorns at Magdala may be the last large offeri' g of that description. The ancient custom of imprisoning all members of tho royal family on a similar fortress, Damo, has been abandoned, but in the early history it is on record that as many as 500 at a time were heM in life-long confinemnt, their only cime- being regal descent and possible ambition —'" A. Visit to Abyssinia," by W. Winstanly.