Ethiopian

“ I hope that by the study of the native inscriptions, and the yet living languages, some important results may be obtained. The name Ethiopian with the ancients comprehended much of very various import. The ancient population of the whole Nile valley to Chartûm, and perhaps along the Blue River, as also the tribes in the desert east of the Nile, and the Abyssinians, then probably were more broadly distinguished from the negroes than at present, and belonged to the Caucasian race ”

“ According to the Abbé Grégoire, all black skinned races descend from the Ethiopian. He founds his opinion upon the works of Herodotus, Theophrastes, Pausanias, Athenœus, Eusebius, Heliodorus, Josephus, Pliny, and Terence; all of whom, in speaking of negroes, call them Ethiopians. As regards their origin, all we know is, that the Ethiopians are from the interior of Africa, and that their ancestors had short and woolly hair, black skins, and thick lips. ”

“ But the Ethiopian people, notwithstanding the slave-trade which has extended its degrading influence far and wide among them, and though civilization long since departed from their tribes, have continued to increase till now they are the most numerous of the human families except the Chinese. ”

“ The Abyssinians have from time immemorial expended an entire tree in the reduction to suitable dimensions of every beam or plank employed in their primitive habitations; and it is not therefore surprising that Sáhela Selássie should have been equally delighted and astonished at the economy of time, labour, and material attending the use of the cross-cut saw. From age to age, and generation to generation, the Ethiopian plods on like his forefathers, without even a desire for improvement. Ignorance and indolence confine him to a narrow circle of observation from which he is afraid to move. ”

“ The Ethiopian Dynasty. Ethiopian rule of the XXVth Dynasty was now firmly established, and the resources of the two countries together might have been employed in conquest in Syria and Phoenicia; but at this very time the Assyrian empire, risen to the highest pitch of military greatness, began to menace Egypt. The Ethiopian could do no more than encourage or support the Syrians in their fight for freedom against Sargon and Sennacherib. ”

“ There were tribes among the Ethiopians which were of a low grade of civilization, just as in the most civilized countries of the present times, there are peoples of a very low grade, not only in civilization but in intelligence. But, there existed a highly cultured and civilized Ethiopian people, who dwelt in cities, erected temples and other edifices, and who had good government and humane laws. Moreover, their fame and progress in knowledge and their social arts spread in the earliest ages over a considerable part of the earth. ”

“ Oh, now and then you will hear grown-ups say, 'Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots?' I don't think even grown-ups would keep on saying such a silly thing if the Leopard and the Ethiopian hadn't done it once—do you? But they will never do it again, Best Beloved. They are quite contented as they are. ”

“ Since no census has ever been taken in Ethiopia the number of Ethiopians can only be estimated. According to the official data of the Ethiopian government the number of inhabitants of Ethiopia is between 20 and 22 million. It is also difficult to give a reliable estimate of the number of Amharic speakers ”

“ No records indeed were discovered of the founders of the first great Ethiopian kingdom from Piankhi to Tirhakah, nor has any fresh light been thrown upon the relations which that remarkable king Ergamenes maintained with the Egyptian Ptolemies. But the exploration of sites in the southern half of Lower Nubia has revealed the existence of a wholly unsuspected independent civilization which grew up during the first six centuries after Christ. ”

“ I expect every moment the transport-boats requested of Hassan Pasha, which set out eleven days ago, and are to take up our Ethiopian treasures, and bring ourselves to Dongola. The results of our researches at this place are not without importance. On the whole, it is perfectly settled that Ethiopian art is only a later branch of the Egyptian. It does not begin under native rulers until Tahraka. The little which yet remains to us of a former age belongs to the Egyptian conquerors and their artists. It is wholly confined here, at least, to one temple, which Ramses the Great erected to Amen-Ra. ”

“ The outbreak of the Egyptian power from Ethiopia at the founding of the New Egyptian Kingdom, and its advance even far into Asia, was transferred from the Ethiopian country to the Ethiopian people, first in the Asiatic and afterwards in the Greek traditions respecting this event ”

“ And this abundance of water in the land to the south of Sevēnēh, and still farther south beyond Seba (or Meroë) , might very well have been known to the prophet as a general fact. The land “beyond the rivers of Cush” is the land bounded by the sources of the Nile, i.e., (including Ethiopia itself in the stricter sense of the word) the south land under Ethiopian rule that lay still deeper in the heart of the country, the land of its African auxiliary tribes, whose names (which probably include the later Nubians and Abyssinians) , as given in 2Ch 12:3 ”

“ They may be such that in the ordinary course of nature, and so far as its forces and laws are concerned, they are never found to be absent from their connatural substances—inseparable accidents. Thus the colour of the Ethiopian is an inseparable accident of his human nature as an Ethiopian ”

“ Ethiopia, the home of a brilliant ancient civilization, has been an independent state which has existed in continuity for many thousands of years.
The Ethiopian state has existed as a multinational state. Its nationalities and diverse communities have forged a unity through cultural intercourse, migrations, commerce and similar interactions in times of peace as well as in times of war. Therefore, Ethiopia's long history of independence has been the history of the united existence and common struggle of her nationalities. ”

“ Thin and slender, the Ethiopians have fine ankles and wrists, long and very sinewy limbs (especially the fore-arm) , broad shoulders, and conical-shaped trunk like the ancient statues of Egypt. In short, they are good representatives of the Ethiopian race.
III. Fulah-Zandeh Group.—Under this term we include the whole series of populations resulting from the intermingling of the Ethiopians and the Nigritians (or Sudanese Negroes) , and extending from east to west across the whole of Africa, over a belt of 5 to 6 degrees in width. ”

“ Amharic, the official language of the Ethiopian Empire, is spoken natively by perhaps six million people in a small but populous area of the country which includes the capital, Addis Ababa. A member of the Southern Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family of languages, Amharic is steadily gaining importance as it picks up additional speakers through the spread of communications and education within Ethiopia. ”

“ There is a marked distinction between the negro hair and that of the Ethiopian race, which is sometimes straight, sometimes crisp, but never woolly. This distinction is carefully marked in the Egyptian monuments, as is also the distinction between the Ethiopian and negro complexions; whence we may conclude that there was as much difference between the two races in ancient as in modern times. The African races descended from the Ethiopians are on the whole a handsome rather than an ugly people ”

“ And this father wrote a letter of blessing, and sent it to the King of Ethiopia, and to all the Ethiopians, and blessed them. When that letter reached the country of Ethiopia God removed His anger from them and sent to them His compassion and mercy; and the rain descended upon them, and God removed the famine and the plague and the people rejoiced with great joy. And this is what happened in the days of that king. Salutation to the Patriarch, the son of Torayk, to whose name was added that of the angel Gabriel. Glory be to God Who is glorified in His Saints. ”

“ The Ethiopian Church has, in addition to the priests and monks, an intermediate class, the Deftaras, or literati, who duty it is to preserve, interpret, and apply the written law, a vast collection of ordinances of the Lower Empire, modified and altered by the Copts in order to ensure the supremacy of the See of Alexandria over the whole of Ethiopia. ”

“ The last fact at once severs Egypt from India, and destroys every presumption of affinity that may arise from the presence in both countries of caste, of animal worship, and of a religion derivable from a primitive adoration of the powers of nature. The hypothesis of an Ethiopian origin sprang from the notion, natural but untrue, that population would follow the course of the descending river. ”

“ Abyssinia, or ancient Ethiopia, comprehends a vast region in the interior parts of Africa, whose inhabitants, previous to the acquaintance of their Queen with the Jewish king Solomon, were involved in a dark and gloomy superstition, resembling in many respects the idolatrous worship of the Egyptians. The connexion and intimacy that subsequently existed between the Jewish and Ethiopian courts resulted in the conversion of this people to Judaism, in the profession of which they remained until the time of our Saviour. ”

“ 'What is this,' said the Leopard, 'that is so 'sclusively dark, and yet so full of little pieces of light?'
'I don't know,' said the Ethiopian, 'but it ought to be the aboriginal Flora. ”

“ The Ethiopians, though of a shining black complexion, have regular and beautiful features, and long black hair (one of those female beauties captivated the affections of Moses) they differ very materially from the negro blacks, so that it appears impossible that they should have descended in a lineal succession from the same ancestors. They are uniformly in their respective generations essentially diverse from each other, so that an issue from a male and female of the two nations would be a mongrel, partaking partly of the kind of both nations. ”

“ Be it known to all who judge our institutions by the labels We have inherited from our past civilisation, that Ethiopian institutions, regardess of their nomenclature, are the fruits of Ethiopianism - this optimum combination that the people of Ethiopia themslves have fashioned to serve the fulfilment of their national destiny. ”

“ The Ethiopian region stands next to it in this, the Oriental and Nearctic next, and last and most modern in its aspect is the great Palearctic region, to which man himself belongs, and the animals and plants of which vindicate their claims to youth by that aggressive and colonizing character already referred to, and which has enabled them to spread themselves widely over the other regions, even independently of the influence of man. ”

“ Ethiopia is over against Egypt and Africa, on the southern part thereof; from the east it stretcheth over against the west even to the Ethiopian Sea. And because much of the people of these three nations are Christians, and because they desired to see the world, they came to these parts of Spain, where they received great gifts from the Infant, on account of which the author hath given this description in his chapter thereupon. ”

“ The Ethiopian has hidden behind a splotchy-blotchy tree because it matches his skin, and the Leopard is lying beside a spickly-speckly bank of stones because it matches his spots. Mr. One-Two-Three-Where's-your-Breakfast is standing up eating leaves from a tall tree. This is really a puzzle-picture like 'Find the Cat.'
'Now you are a beauty!' said the Ethiopian. [59] 'You can lie out on the bare ground and look like a heap of pebbles. ”

“ A caravan scarcely ever ventured forth by any road, that it was not plundered by the opposing partisans, and merchants as well as trade gradually departed south of the Arabian Gulf, to sea-ports which in earlier times had been the emporia of commerce with the East. Raheïta, Zeyla, Tajúra, and a number of other towns in the Indian Ocean, thus recovered their importance and their lost prosperity. The conquest of the Abyssinian territories in Arabia, drove every Ethiopian to the African shores. ”

“ Among the latter, power grew in the hands of a race of Ethiopians, who had risen to importance at Napata, on the Upper Nile, and who extended their power, at last, over the whole of Egypt. The Ethiopian domination was maintained for two-thirds of a century, until the great wave of Assyrian conquest broke upon Egypt in 672 B. C. and swept over it, driving the Ethiopians back to Napata and Meroë. G. Rawlinson, History of Ancient Egypt, chapter 25. ALSO IN: H. Brugsch-Bey, Egypt under the Pharaohs, chapter 15-18. E. Wilson, Egypt of the Past, chapter 8. See, also, ETHIOPIA. EGYPT: B. C. 670-525. ”

“ The earliest monuments in Egypt make a strong distinction between the Ethiopians south of Egypt and the negro races, for although the Ethiopians were of a dark or dusky skin, they had straight hair, thin noses, and the form of the head of different shape. It is not apparent that any reference in Scripture is made to the negro race as such ”

“ Neither are the Ethiopians, who extend towards the south and Meroë, numerous nor collected in a body; for they inhabit a long, narrow, and winding tract of land on the riverside, such as we have before described; nor are they well prepared either for war or the pursuit of any other mode of life. ”

“ Then in the deep, mysterious silence of the night, Reuel gave in minutest detail the story of the Negro, reciting with dramatic effect the history of the wrongs endured by the modern Ethiopian.
To his queries as to the history of these mountain-dwelling Ethiopians, Ai gave the following reply:
“We are a singular people, governed by a female monarch, all having the same name, Candace, and a Council of twenty-five Sages, who are educated for periodical visits to the outer world. Queen Candace is a virgin queen who waits the coming of Ergamenes to inaugurate a dynasty of kings. ”