“From these vague traditions,” the same writer prudently added, “in which truth and fiction are inextricably jumbled together, the inquirer does not gain much trustworthy information on the history of Ethiopia and the settlement of the Jews in that country.”[124] Mr. Augustus Wylde visited a charming and sequestered spot where, according to one legend, the stolen ark was deposited. “We halted for lunch just _vis-à-vis_ to the first sources of the Taccazze. . . . Just before reaching the sources, on a hill on the north side of the valley, is the church of Chevenan Gorgis, in a splendid grove of juniper trees; immediately above the sources on the hill is another church, also surrounded by juniper trees, dedicated to Debbessa Jesu; tradition has it that when Menelek, the son of the Queen of Sheba by King Solomon, came from Jerusalem with the ark, it was placed on the ground at this spot, where he camped, and these springs gushed forth, and he immediately ordered a temple to be built on the spot. “On leaving this camp Menelek commenced his march towards the east, and on the bearers of the ark putting it down, after about an hour’s march, they found that they could not move it, as it firmly adhered to the ground. This spot is supposed by some of the Abyssinians to be the true resting-place of the ark that was brought from Jerusalem; there is a church built over the spot called Eyela Kudus Michael. . . . It is nearly impossible for a stranger to obtain admittance to this church, and the place in the Holy of Holies where the ark is supposed to rest is shown to no one. This ark cannot be in two places; the people of the north declare it is in the sacred grove of Axum in the church of Selata Musser (place of Moses), and the priests of the Eyela district declare it is in their church, so they always quarrel and wrangle over this vexed question, the same as European priests do over their sacred relics.”[125] Perhaps the soundest opinion which can be formed under present conditions as to the origin of the Abyssinian people has been expressed by Mr. Wylde:—“The race, as the name Habash or Abyssinian denotes, is a mixture, undoubtedly of very long standing, but most likely of Jew with the inhabitants of Southern Arabia and the non-negro races of Eastern Africa.”[126] According to tradition, Christianity was introduced into the country in the fourth century.