der to maintain touch with Islam. The negroid people of Italian
Erythrea are Moslems, as are also the Somalis; but their racial cousins,
the Abyssinians, are Christians of the Ethiopian Church, with the Negus
as their temporal and spiritual ruler, who claims descent from King
Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.

Abyssinia has been Christian ever since the fourth century, but the
missionaries are not happy about the country at all. Here nothing
impedes the entrance of the missionary as an individual, but the people
will not have him as an evangelist at any price. The "fanatical and
debased" priests of the Abyssinian Church and the drastic punishments
inflicted by the local authorities on those suspected of favouring other
forms of Christianity are described as grave hindrances. There is a
large population of "black Jews," who will have no dealings with
Christianity in any form. Meanwhile Islam gains ground steadily,
especially in the south along the trade routes. A German missionary,
writing from Strasburg in 1910, describes the situation as alarming,
because "whole tribes of Abyssinians who still bear Christian names have
become Muhammedans in the last twenty years." There is one Protestant
mission up at Addis Abeba, but it confines its attentions to the
semi-pagan Gallas, having given up Christian Abyssinia as a bad job.

Somaliland is a poor field for missionary enterprise, owing to the
sparse, semi-nomadic population and the difficulties of getting about.
In the French sphere there is connection by rail between Jibuti on the
coast and Dera Dowa near the Abyssinian border; travelling musicians of
the _cafe chantant_ type used to use it a good deal before the War, but
there was not much doing in the missionary line. Italian Somaliland,
east of the British sphere to Cape Guardafui, is left to look after
itself, except for the occasional visit of an Italian man-of-war; but
south of that great headland there are Italian settlements.

In British Somaliland missionary enterprise has hitherto been Catholic,
and even that ceased some years before the War when the authorities had
to tell the mission that it must leave, as they could no longer protect
it from the Mullah's people. It was a pity, as the mission was doing
good work and was much respected in the country. There was a Brotherhood
which taught and doctored, and a teaching Sisterhood. They were
Franciscans and had their local headquarters and a tastefully designed
little