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Show 2510 MEN KILLED IN ABYSSINIAN WAR Natives Throw Rifles Away and Dash at Each Other With Scimitar and Spear. LONDON, Feb. 2. Correspondence of the Associated Press.) -Abyssinia has been having a stormy time since the death of Emperor Menelik. In the East few months the new emperor has een deposed, civil war has broken out and several battles have been fought between the factions, in one of which nearly 25, 000 men were killed. The new ruler is Empress Zauditu, a daughter of Menelik. An account of the happenings in Abyssinia Abys-sinia has just reached London from Europeans living in the capital, Adis-Abeba. Adis-Abeba. One letter says: : Lidj Jeassu, the young emperor, who succeeded bis grandfather, Menelik, has gradually come under Turkigh influence and had in many ways offended the Christian population. popula-tion. The legations of the entente powers in September sent in a joint protest, and this was followed, a few days later, by a meeting of the ministry, which declared the emperor em-peror deposed and enthroned in his place the Princess Zauditu, with Has Taafari as regent and heir to the throne. Things were quiet for a few weeks while the deposed ruler's partisans par-tisans were gathering. Then suddenly sud-denly Mikael, ruler of Wollo and the inost powerful chief in the country, coun-try, declared himself in favor of the deposed emperor and marched against Adis-Abeba. The first battle bat-tle was fought Borne distance outside out-side the capital, where the government govern-ment army of 5000 men, under Ras Sul-Seged, was virtually annihilated annihi-lated and Seged killed. There was a good deal of excitement excite-ment in the capital, and the legations lega-tions prepared for attack, but the enemy was slow in appearing and the new empress had time to mobilize mob-ilize a strong force, which, under the personal command of the war minister, met the enemy on October Octo-ber 27. The battle lasted all clay and resulted in the enemy's complete com-plete rout. ,.The empress' side had 10,000 killed out of 60,000 engaged, ' while the enemy is said to have lost 15.000 killed. The method of fighting wis primitive. prim-itive. At first they fired with rifles, ri-fles, but, becoming tired of this, they threw these weapons aside and dashed at one another with scimitars scimi-tars and spears. There was great rejoicing in Adis-Abeba Adis-Abeba over the outcome of the battle, bat-tle, and on the return of the victorious vic-torious army a grand review was held by the empress in person. Each chief rode at the head of his men, and, as he approached the empress, he dismounted, drew his sword and danced about her, shouting shout-ing the deeds he had done. This was kept up until the chief became exhausted, when he prostrated himself him-self and withdrew. The commander of the enemy's army, Mikael, was led up chained to the chief who had captured him. He was a fine-looking man of 65, dignified, but extremely sorrowful. Other chiefs who had been captured followed him, all in chains, and each carrying a large stone on his shoulders as a sign of submission. |