ABYSSINIA OF TO-DAY.
Abyssinia of To-clay: an Account of the First Mission Sent by the American Government to the Court of the King of Kings, 1903-1904. By Robert P. Skinner. (Edward Arnold. 12s. 6d.)—This is in every way an excellent book; it is pleasantly written and con- tains some profitable suggestions. Mr. Skinner gives in it an account of the experiences of the American Commercial Mission to the Court of King Menelik in 1903-4, which he suggested to President McKinley three years-before, and of which he was the head. This volume is valuable in view of the Treaty that was recently agreed to, because it indicates who are the forceful personages in Abyssinia—the " strength " of King Menelik is placed beyond doubt—what will be the special commercial advan- tages of the country, and what is the danger involved in mush a confession as " We must avow the superiority of the Germane as commercial travellers." The varied scenery and the character- istics of the desert races have full justice done to them. There are innumerable passages as good and characteristic as this "Then would come a halt, and out of the darkness would issue shrill Abyssinian exclamations and Arabian objurgations, which ceased only when an old-fashioned Yankee `Damn! could be heard in the storm centre, and then things would be set straight again. Finally, when the blackness became so dense as to bear down upon our spirits with something of the weight of physical oppression, the stars came out as quickly as the sun had dis- appeared, and on the distant slopes of Mount Fantalle lion fires burst upward, showing where the shepherds minded their flocks and wished to frighten the wild beasts away. We none of us spoke much after the sun had set. The mysterious spell of an African night leaves one speechless with a vague consciousness of an invisible choir singing Addison's hymn of the firmament telling its story to the listening earth."
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