Yellow counters the passions of red with its appeal to harmony. Here, the color enhances the tranquil beauty of this Muslim girl visiting the Mt. Entoto church where Menelik II was crowned in 1889. Yellow also appears regularly in ecclesiastical dress. Behind this priest in Yeha is a small collection of local artifacts, ranging from church treasures to Sabaean inscriptions found in the Great Temple, built about 700 B.C.E. of massive stone blocks, attesting to early cultural ties with Arabia. His cross, held for believers to kiss, is made of interwoven reeds in a simple design frequently elaborated in gold and silver. Similar reed work produces the yellow tankwa still used by fishermen on Lake Tana and the Blue Nile River, just as they were millennia ago in Egypt, 3000 miles downstream.
