Excerpt from Modern Abyssinia

Many of the happiest days of my life have been spent in the uplands of Abyssinia, enjoying the ever varying scenery Of mountain, valley and plain, looking at the lovely flowers, plants and trees, the birds with their gorgeous plumage, the animals and the butterflies, moths and insects, many of them being unknown in other countries. NO day ever seemed to be too long, and I know of no country that would repay the botanist, naturalist, geologist or artist better, than a year passed collecting and studying the varied objects to be met with.

The seasons in Abyssinia are more marked than in many other parts of the world, and immediately after the rains commence there is a change from the dull browns, greys and reds of the forest, field and fell, to vivid and tender greens of all shades, and this sudden alteration in the colours of the landscape is more marked in the provinces of Tigr� and Amhara in the north and centre, than in the open wind swept downs of Shoa in the southern portion of the kingdom. I have seen the country at all times of the year: during the rainy season and the dry, after the summer and winter rains, while the ground is being broken up and the seed planted, and at harvest time when the crops are being gathered; also during the time of peace and prosperity, with the busy villages and contented inhabitants, during war, famine and pestilence and then still at another time, when kind nature in one short season has hidden man's hideous handiwork and covered the ruins of the hamlets and their unburied occupants with a thick growth of vegetation.

There is no harder worker than the Abyssinian peasant, and no more harmless and hospitable person when left alone and properly treated; and no more truculent, worthless, conceited, lazy and useless individual than the Abyssinian soldier, who formerly did nothing but prey upon the de fenceless cultivator.

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