The empire of Abyssinia consists of a mighty plateau ten times as large as the State of Ohio, from which rise many high mountains. The country might be called the roof of the continent, and has so much beautiful scenery that it has been dubbed the African Switzerland. The plateau consists of great tablelands rising one above the other and cut up by great gorges and mighty canyons somewhat like those of the Rockies. In the centre of the plateau is Lake Tsana, and down its sides flow great rivers, some of which are lost in the sands while others, such as the Atbara and the Blue Nile, give food and water to Egypt. The Blue Nile has its source in Lake Tsana. Abyssinia has some of the best soil of Africa. It is, in fact, a fertile island in the midst of a sea of deserts and swamps. It will grow almost anything, including sugar and cotton in the lowlands, coffee higher up, and still higher the hardy grains of the temperate zone. This country is said to be the first home of the coffee plant. It has a province called Kaffa, whence the first coffee beans were carried to Arabia. The word “coffee” comes from the name of that province. In Kaffa, coffee trees grow so large that they are used for timber. In some places they grow wild. In others the coffee is cultivated. At present Abyssinia is almost unexplored, but its opening and development are assured, and it may become one of the tourist and hunting resorts of the future. The land is especially interesting to us in that most of the Abyssinians are Christians, their religion being about the same as that of the Copts of Egypt. CHAPTER XXVIII ADEN Leaving the Red Sea at the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, we came to Aden, Arabia, and thence went on down along the coast of the Indian Ocean to Mombasa. The very best of our Mocha coffee is shipped from Aden to the United States. It comes here on camels from the province of Yemen, where it is raised by the natives, each family having a few bushes about its hut and producing only enough for home use and a little for trading. There are no big plantations and no coffee factories. When ripe the berries are gathered and dried in the sun. After this they are put up in bales, and carried on camelback over the hills to this place. They are then hulled between millstones turned by hand, and winnowed and sorted for shipment. The latter work is done by the women, who look over each grain carefully, taking out the bad ones. Labour is cheap, but the coffee has to go through many hands. It has to pay toll to the chiefs of the tribes who own the country through which it is carried, so it must be sold at high prices. For this reason we have imitations of Mocha coffee from all parts of the world.