Abyssinians on March 1, 1896, inflicted a crushing defeat on the Italians,
killing four thousand of them and capturing two thousand prisoners. The
empress, Taitou, a full-blooded Negress, led some of the charges. By this
battle Abyssinia became independent.

Such in vague and general outline is the strange story of the valley of
the Nile--of Egypt, the motherland of human culture and

"That starr'd Ethiop Queen that strove To set her beauty's praise above
The sea nymphs."

FOOTNOTES:

[4] [Greek: "autos de eikasa têde kai hote melanchroes eisi kai
oulotriches."] Liber II, Cap. 104.

[5] Cf. Maciver and Thompson: _Ancient Races of the Thebaid_.

[6] _Journal of Race Development_, I, 484.

[7] Petrie: _History of Egypt_, I, 51, 237.

[8] _From West Africa to Palestine_, p. 114.

[9] Depending partly on whether the so-called Hyksos sphinxes belong to
the period of the Hyksos kings or to an earlier period (cf. Petrie, I,
52-53, 237). That Negroids largely dominated in the early history of
western Asia is proven by the monuments.

[10] Petrie: _History of Egypt_, II, 337.