THE LAND SHADOWING WITH WINGS—­EGYPT UNDER THE ETHIOPIANS

The name of Ethiopia was applied in ancient times, much as the term Soudan is applied now, vaguely to the East African interior south of Egypt, from about lat. 24 deg. to about lat. 9 deg..  The tract was for the most part sandy or rocky desert, interspersed with oases, but contained along the course of the Nile a valuable strip of territory; while, south and south-east of the point where the Nile receives the Atbara, it spread out into a broad fertile region, watered by many streams, diversified by mountains and woodlands, rich in minerals, and of considerable fertility.  At no time did the whole of this vast tract—­a thousand miles long by eight or nine hundred broad—­form a single state or monarchy.  Rather, for the most part, was it divided up among an indefinite number of states, or rather of tribes, some of them herdsmen, others hunters or fishermen, very jealous of their independence, and frequently at war one with another.  Among the various tribes there was a certain community of race, a resemblance of physical type, and a similarity of language.  Their neighbours, the Egyptians, included them all under a single ethnic name, speaking of them as Kashi or Kushi—­a term manifestly identical with the Cush or Cushi of the Hebrews.  They were a race cognate with the Egyptians, but darker in complexion and coarser in feature—­not by any means negroes, but still more nearly allied to the negro than the Egyptians were.  Their best representatives in modern times are the pure-bred Abyssinian tribes, the Gallas, Wolaitzas, and the like, who are probably their descendants.

The portion of Ethiopia which lay nearest to Egypt had been from a very early date penetrated by Egyptian influence.  Wars with “the miserable Kashi” began as far back as the time of Usurtasen I.; and Usurtasen III. carried his arms beyond the Second Cataract, and attached the northern portion of Ethiopia to Egypt.  The great kings of the eighteenth dynasty, Thothmes III., Amenhotep II., and Amenhotep III., proceeded still further southward; and the last of these monarchs built a temple to Ammon at Napata, near the modern Gebel Berkal.  The Ethiopians of this region, a plastic race, adopted to a considerable extent the Egyptian civilization, worshipped Egyptian gods in Egyptian shrines, and set up inscriptions in the hieroglyphic character and in the Egyptian tongue.  Napata, and the Nile valley both below it and above it, was already half Egyptianized, when, on the establishment of the Sheshonk dynasty in Egypt, the descendants of Herhor resolved to quit their native country, and remove themselves into Ethiopia, where they had reason to expect a welcome.  They were probably already connected by marriage with some of the leading chiefs of Napata, and their sacerdotal character gave them a great hold on a peculiarly superstitious people.  The “princes of Noph” received them with the greatest favour, and assigned them the highest