Word: ras
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...pipe, stepped little Haile Selassie in a sun helmet and a long white cloak. The Carnaro's band burst into the Fascist anthem: Giovinezza! A British military band hurriedly sprayed the air with a brassy countermelody. With the little Emperor was his "good" son-in-law, Ras Desta Demtu, and Ras Kassa, who fought the Italians in the north. Sharp eyes could find no trace of lean Ras Nassibu, defender of Harar, who was last seen with the Emperor just before he sailed from Djibouti. Immediately sanguine tongues prattled that Ras Nassibu had gone back to fight some more...
...Harar. All the excitement was not limited to Addis Ababa last week, Doggedly Italy's southern army under General Graziani plowed ahead toward Harar, Jijiga and Diredawa, key cities of the southeast. Only nature opposed them. At Harar, second city of the defunct empire, news that its defender, Ras Nassibu, had also fled the country caused another outbreak of rioting and looting almost as severe as that which shook Addis Ababa. Soon the Italians marched in, put down disorder with a heavy hand...
...reading dispatches, wishing he were further south enjoying the fun in Addis Ababa. Up to his tent rode a bedraggled, bearded native on muleback carrying a twisted twig and a scrap of white cloth. Stiffly dismounting, the blackamoor bowed low to the ground in token of submission. It was Ras Seyoum, onetime ruler of Tigre Province, the "Black Fox of Ethiopia." ablest of the north Ethiopian chieftains. For six months he had held Italy's armies at bay. Alone he had arrived to surrender...
...bearded chiefs at first said nothing at all. Finally they explained. There was only one effective army left in Ethiopia, that of Ras Nassibu, now fighting for its life against General Graziani's relentless advance on Harar. Tribes to the west were in as ugly a mood as those around Magdala. One after another the chiefs rose to tell how hopeless the situation was. There was nothing for the King of Kings to do but run for his life...
...still had their rifles, bags of dried peas and the capacity to put up a fight. In the south things were different. The bloodiest battle of the entire War was raging last week around a collection of water holes and mud huts known as Sassa Baneh. There lean, wily Ras Nassibu had stationed legions of his best men, entrenched in an elaborate series of fortifications dug under direction of the onetime Turkish General Wehib Pasha. Four columns under General Graziani were attempting to surround the town, batter it to submission. Charging again & again through thorn bushes and over huge boulders...