A WART-HOG—"BRUNDO" BUTCHERING—AN "ETON BLUE" BIRD—BABOONS—DESERTED VILLAGE—ROUGH WALKING—THE ABYSSINIAN ADAM AND EVE—JEALOUSY—THE PRIESTS—SAVAGE CUSTOMS—TAMARISK COVER—NATIVE SPORTSMEN—DANCING AND SINGING—WANT OF A DOG—NEWS OF A LION—RED POCKET-HANDKERCHIEFS AND THEIR EFFECT—"BORROWED PLUMES"—THE JUNGLE ON FIRE—WE STEER WEST—"BLACKMAIL"—SUMMARY JUSTICE.

Jan. 23.—I started very early this morning, before sunrise—or with the "morning star," as the Abyssinians say—and went down the river to see what sport I could find. It was so cold that I rode out of camp on my mule, wrapped up in an Ulster. Directly the sun rose it got warm, but up to that time the air was very piercing. After going down the river some little way we came to a large field of Dargousa corn: here I stopped, and leaving my mule in care of one of the servants, determined to walk over some of the hills on the right bank of the river and see what I could find. Goubasee, my gun-bearer, was very anxious to stop and warm himself at a fire which two of the ballagas had made in a sort of hut, which was built to live in during the time that the corn was ripening and that they were thrashing it out. These natives slept in the hut, and guarded the corn at night from the inroads of wild beasts. I told Goubasee to come on and not lag behind—as after it gets hot in this country one never sees any game, for all retire to the thick jungle. I walked up a steep hill, and soon came, at the top, on a broad level plateau. Part of this plateau was cultivated; the rest of it was short, dry grass, which reached up to the knees. It looked a very likely place for game, especially pigs or deer. I made Goubasee and another man I had with me spread out and walk through the grass, in the hopes of "putting up" something; but we saw nothing there. Where the grass ceased there was a rocky, stony piece of ground, with short, stunted trees growing on it. All of a sudden, by the side of one of these little trees, I saw a fine old boar standing. He looked steadily at me, and I looked at him—we were both very much taken by surprise, as I almost came on the top of him. The colour of this animal is so much like the dried-up ground that it is very hard at first to discern. H. had lent me his Express this morning, so I fired and hit him behind the shoulder. He galloped off, and was circling round towards me, when I gave him the left barrel, which caught him just behind the ear; he rolled over like a rabbit, and lay with his legs kicking in the air. He turned out to be a wart-hog. We skinned him and took off his head, which I have kept. Goubasee, while the operation of skinning was going on, cut off large lumps of the quivering flesh and stuffed them into his mouth; he seemed to enjoy it very much. Nearly all Abyssinians eat brundo, which is their name for raw meat, and in consequence of this they are all affected with tÆnia, or tapeworm, and have periodically (I believe once a month) to take a very strong purgative medicine, which they call coussou. This destroys the worm for a time, but it always reappears again. By reason of this, nearly all Abyssinian men are very hollow-cheeked, and some of them exceedingly thin; but, notwithstanding this, their powers of marching long distances over their hills with very little food is something marvellous.

When we had skinned the wart-hog and taken away what we wanted for food, we hung up the carcase in a tree. Before going any farther I wish to recommend all sportsmen who go out to wild countries to learn a little butchering before leaving home; it is most useful not only to know how to cut up a beast, but also to know the different parts of the animal, their names, and what to reject and what to keep for food, and how to remove the parts from the carcase. Almost any afternoon at the slaughtering-houses of the live meat market near the Great Northern Railway, London, the butchers may be seen killing, skinning, and dressing for the dead meat market, both mutton and beef, and for a small gratuity they are very ready to give any information.

I sent home one of the servants with the skin and the head, and went on to look for more game with Goubasee. I saw in the distance a rather curiously-forked stick, as I thought; it was just over the top of the grass. I never suspected for an instant that this was an animal, so did not attempt to stalk in any way, but walked straight on. To my great surprise, however, I saw a beautiful, light red-coloured deer lying just at the edge of the dry grass near an open space. Of course when the animal saw me it jumped up and bounded away at full speed; I took a snap shot—and missed. This is a good instance of how difficult it is when one first goes into a strange country to distinguish game, for it is some little time before the eye gets accustomed to the strange scenery, and the ear to the unfamiliar noises and sounds that are heard in a wild jungle. The forked stick, as I thought it, was the two little pointed ears of the deer. I now walked round this small plateau, and determined to make for my mule and go home to breakfast, as it was getting hot. H. as well had been out in the morning, and had seen a large herd of Hagazin or koodoo, but could not get near them. There was a very beautiful bird to be seen in this jungle near the Mareb, in shape like an English cuckoo, but of a very lovely light blue; as most of my readers will know the tint of Eton blue, it was almost exactly that colour. We shot several specimens, which Fisk preserved. I had seen, the evening before, a pair of wild geese in a pool down the river, so I went out to try and get a shot at them. I told K. that I was going to shoot them both at one shot if I could; he said, "They are a great deal too shy, you won't get near them." I went down the river, when, lo, I saw my two friends swimming about in a small pool. I fired at them with my 16-bore No. 1 shot, killing the gander outright. The goose flapped on a little way, and I thought I had not got her, when Goubasee, who was with me, rushed off down the river, having heard a faint cackle in the distance, and came back with the goose in his hand. It was very lucky that the bird made any sound at all, as it was nearly pitch dark. I came back to camp triumphantly with my two geese, and the next evening we had them roasted and stuffed with onions—they were excellent, and were among the few things in Abyssinia that I had tasted really good.

Jan. 24.—I started very early indeed this morning—in fact, by moonlight—in order to get on the ground where I thought I should find game, before the heat arose. The day before, I had seen a conically-shaped mountain lying north of where I had been shooting. Instead of leaving my mule in the cultivated ground near the river, I turned up a path on the right bank of the river, and rode some little way into the hills. I left my mule on a little eminence just below the edge of the table-land which I had shot over the day before, and walked on towards the mountain. I saw nothing but tracks of deer till I got nearly to the top, and it was a very steep climb indeed. On a little open space just below the summit of the mountain I saw some jungle fowl pecking; they were not in the least like the Indian jungle fowl but brown-looking birds; in fact, they had the same colour throughout, and exactly the shape of little bantam hens. Unluckily, I had not my shot gun with me, as I would have given much to have shot one of these little creatures; but they ran away into the jungle in a long file, and I did not see them again. I now made for the summit of the mountain. There was a small, thickly-wooded hollow just below where I was climbing, and I thought very likely there might be something lying in it, so I picked up a stone and rolled it down, when out leaped two of those mouse-brown deer that I had seen at Sellaadarou; they rushed away through the jungle, and I could only get a snap shot at them, but managed to hit one of them. I then climbed to the top of the mountain, on my way towards which, I had heard a great number of baboons chattering among the rocks, but when they saw me they all scampered away.

At the top, to my great astonishment, I found a small level plateau and the ruins of a village; the circular walls of the huts were still standing, and broken pottery was lying about in all directions. This, most likely, was one of the villages that the robber of the Mareb devastated, of whom I have spoken before. What struck me most was how and where the villagers got their water, as the country round here was particularly dry; they must have gone to the Mareb for it, which was at some distance. I searched all about the mountain in hopes of finding a spring, as I was very thirsty myself, but there was no such thing to be seen. I was a little tired with the climbing, so, getting under the shade of one of the ruined walls, I curled myself up and went to sleep for nearly an hour, Goubasee squatting close by, watching me like a dog. When I awoke the sun was high, so I thought I had better go home to breakfast, and went down the opposite side of the mountain to that I had come up. I saw my mule like a speck in the distance, and made straight across country for it, much to the chagrin of my gun-bearer, who wished to go by a path which lay rather out of the straight line. It was a heavy walk, as the jungle was very thick; in fact, in one patch of thorns I found myself completely suspended. My face and hands were torn, but at length I reached my mule, feeling very fatigued, as the walk had been a long one. When back in camp I arranged that K., together with Cassa, one of our head servants who had charge of our transport arrangements, should go on to Adiaboo with our heavy baggage, and that we should change our camp some little way down the river in order to shoot over fresh ground. I went out of camp in the evening, and a little way down the river I heard a great rush in the jungle on the bank. My gun-bearer said it was a lion, when I sat down and waited for some little time, but I could hear no sound, nor could I see anything, so I went home to dinner.

K. and I after dinner, over the camp-fire, were talking of the Abyssinians and their religion. He said that their version of the "fall of man" was rather curious. It was this: Adam and Eve, who lived in a beautiful garden, were happy and contented, till one day the serpent came and said to Eve, "Where is Adam?" She answered, "He is in another part of the garden." So the serpent sneeringly said, "Oh, indeed, do you think so?" Eve rejoined, "For what reason do you sneer?" The serpent replied, "You think yourself the only woman in the world?" and she said, "Yes, and a most beautiful woman." The serpent then said, "Adam often stays away from you, does he not, now? I will show you another woman;" on which he produced a looking-glass. Eve saw her image reflected in it and immediately became jealous. The serpent then said, "If you wish to secure Adam's love for ever and ever, you must eat of the fruit which I will point out to you." So came about the fall of man, according to Abyssinians. This is quite consistent with Abyssinian character and ideas, as probably no people are more vain or conceited than they; jealousy in all things is one of their chief failings. Abyssinians, in their religion, are great bigots, and the whole country is very much at the present time under the influence of the priests. The king himself is very particular about his religious observances, and priests and monasteries are very often richly endowed. The Abyssinians' hatred of the Mussulman is extreme. They have always looked upon the Egyptians with great abhorrence as well as terror, for already part of their country called Bogos has been annexed by them. They think that the Mussulman will try and overrun the whole of Abyssinia, and, according to events that are now taking place, this does not seem at all improbable.

An Abyssinian is thought a great deal of if he goes to Jerusalem, and they always think that the Turk is going to destroy the holy places and sweep away the relics that are kept there.

It may not be known to some of my readers that the Queen of Sheba is supposed to have ruled over Abyssinia, and at that time the country was evidently a great deal more prosperous and civilised than it is now. Elephants are said to have been used as beasts of burden; nowadays, the natives have not the smallest idea of taming this most useful animal. There exist large ruins of palaces both at Goujam and at Gindar, which testify to the wealth and magnificence the country originally boasted of. It seems to me a great pity that a country which is comparatively so near Europe, and with a good seaboard, should be so completely lost to the world. What few Abyssinian chiefs I saw always impressed upon me that we, the English, ought to come and live in the country. They had formed, I am sure, a great opinion of England's wealth and power from what they saw and also heard of the Abyssinian expedition. I was told at Massowah that an enormous quantity of material of different sorts, that had been left behind after the war, quite made the fortune of a tribe that lived on the coast; for they sold all these materials at Massowah to the Egyptian government. It forcibly struck me, while travelling over these fertile lands, what an extensive field there is for British industry and enterprise. Abyssinia contains considerable mineral wealth; but whether it is sufficiently localised to make its working remunerative remains to be discovered. I tried to get some information on this point from the French bishop of Keren, who came down to Massowah with us, and he told me he thought that minerals were not to be profitably worked with the present means of transport. K. often assured me that he had seen unmistakable evidences of gold. If once there was a gold rush to this country, it would certainly open it up in a way; but the experience of other countries makes one doubt whether such would prove a desirable commencement to civilisation.

Very often on riding into the village I was greeted by the Mussulman salutation of "Salaam," and they always asked my servants if I was a Mussulman. It was explained to them I was really a Christian, at which they were much astonished. All the priests in Abyssinia that I happened to meet I found to be very sensible fellows; in fact, they are the only educated members of the community. They dislike European missionaries for the reason that the missionaries educate the people, which education the priests endeavour to check as much as possible. There is a country much nearer home than Abyssinia which was, up to a short time since, much in the same state; in fact, that expression of "priest-ridden country" may be applied to Abyssinia with as much force as it used to be applied to the Sister Isle.

Before I go farther, I must mention that at this camp we killed a cow for the benefit of our coolies and servants, who ate it raw. K. had done this while we were out of camp, so I did not see the squabble which ensued. The bits were shared out equally, but one of the men complained, said his quantity was short, and he threw it at the man's head who was dividing the portions. Then a general row ensued, and they might be seen running about the camp tearing lumps of raw flesh out of each other's hands and cramming them into their mouths to get rid of them as quickly as possible, much in the same way as a pack of hounds would break up a fox. When an Abyssinian sees or scents raw flesh he becomes a perfectly wild savage; and the women eat brundo as well as the men.

Jan. 25.—In the afternoon, H. and I started down the Mareb, intending to go a short way and then pitch our camp. We followed the bank of the river, but it was very deep walking, as the damp sand gave way under the mules. I very nearly got bogged, only just slipping off my mule in time, and directly the weight was off his back he recovered himself. The banks of the river, on both sides, were fringed with tamarisk bushes, which form a thick cover, a favourite one in India for tigers. We fixed our camp at the place where the Zareena joins the Mareb; at this time of the year—that is to say, the hot weather—the Zareena is a beautiful running stream, and the water, the servants told us, was considered excellent. We pitched our tent on the shingly bed of the Mareb, and I amused myself, with the help of my gun-bearers, by getting firewood for the night, as Fisk and the luggage had not come up yet. On the way here we passed some Abyssinians sitting in a small bower, made of branches, which was constructed over a water pool. They had come down from the villages to hunt—that is to say, to squat over the pool watching in turns, night and day, for any animal that might chance to come and drink. I do not think they killed much game, and they seemed to spend most of their time smoking a pipe, a rude sort of hookah, with a cocoanut as the receptacle for the water that the smoke passed through.

This evening I assembled our servants and coolies and induced them to give us a dance and song in their own fashion, I accompanying them on my banjo which I had brought with me. The dancing was rather curious: all stood round in a circle singing a monotonous chant and clapping their hands; one stood out in the circle and went through extraordinary contortions, throwing his body backwards as far as possible and then twisting quickly round. In one part of the dance they all squatted down and wriggled their bodies about, making a sort of hissing noise with their teeth. I requested Brou to translate the words of the song, which were, "Plough, ploughman, plough, nor turn your attention to merchandise;" this meant, of course, stay at home, till your land, and lead a quiet life; do not seek other riches in far countries. It was repeated over and over again, like most Eastern songs; and they would have gone on all night, I believe, if we had allowed them.

Jan. 26.—I went out in the morning at daybreak and saw literally nothing but a dik-dik. There are vast quantities of partridges amongst the tamarisk bushes, which Fisk shoots for the pot with great success. I always regret not having brought out a dog of some sort or other, as dogs are always useful for retrieving birds. I frequently came across the tracks of koodoo, but never saw one. H. told me, when he came back to camp, that he had "rolled over" a deer, and, on running up to secure him, the animal staggered away amongst the high grass and jungle and was lost. This was very bad luck, as it was the first deer he had hit. I went down the river in the evening, a very beautiful walk; the Mareb wound in some places among rocks, in others through thick jungle. I stopped to rest for a short time; a little gazelle ran out and crossed the river bed a little way off. I shot with my muzzle-loading rifle, and missed. This was another chance gone for the Express. I found when I got back to camp that some natives had been in; in fact, they were the sportsmen whom we saw in their hut beside the pool. They told us that a lion, a month ago, had killed a man and eight cows, but this was not of much use to us now. Why is it in all sport, whether hunting, shooting, or fishing, you hear that you ought to have been there the other day, or else it is too early—you ought to have come later; the ground is very hard, or the scent bad; the birds are still wild; or else, when you go fishing, the water is thick, or the fish are not on the feed, etc., etc.?

Jan. 27.—I went out this morning with two of the native hunters who had come into camp the day before. We wandered over the hills, but I did not succeed in shooting anything, and only saw two gazelles scouring away in the distance. On the table-land, where I found these gazelles, there was a very singular cavity in the rocks, just on the edge of a cliff; it was almost as if it had been hollowed out by the hand of man; it was oblong-shaped, and it could easily have held two or three hundred people. The day was very hot, and the sun beat down on the dry rocks, so I made the best of my way down the steep side of the hill into the bed of the Mareb, which ran underneath. On the way home I fired at a white eagle with my rifle, and picked him off the top of the tree he was perched on, but the bullet had so injured the bird that he was not worth preserving. This was really a bad morning's sport. H. had done no better than myself; and it was a good deal owing to this that we determined to move off the next day. This afternoon I presented the hunters, who had been out with me, with three common cotton pocket-handkerchiefs, of which I had bought a good many at Bologna, in Italy, on my way out. They seemed to be delighted with them, and grinned and laughed, and passed them round for each other to admire.

After luncheon, H. and I determined to ride down the Mareb and explore that line of country. We had not gone very far before we saw our friends the hunters sitting round a small pool of water, then tying the handkerchiefs round their heads and admiring themselves, using the water as a looking-glass. They looked very ridiculous, and seemed highly delighted with their personal appearance, which they evidently felt was greatly improved by the red cotton handkerchiefs. We rode a good way down the river, and the farther we went the fewer the little pools of water became: at last there was no water to be seen, the sand had gradually absorbed it; and we should have to dig four or five feet in order to get water here, so it would be of very little use to go down into the jungle by this route. H. and I amused ourselves by setting fire to the jungle, in hopes of starting some animal, but we saw nothing and so turned our mules' heads towards home. It is interesting in this country to see, while jungle is burning; this it is always doing during the dry weather—the number of birds—insect-catchers—hovering over the flames and catching any flies, beetles, or butterflies, that happen to be driven out of the grass and bushes by the smoke and heat.

Jan. 28.—To-day we started at 8.30 for Adiaboo. We went up the bed of the Zareena for a short way and then turned off sharp to the right; this will be better understood by my readers when I say that, after turning to the right, we began travelling very nearly due west. The road was merely a jungle path, and the bushes were in some places very thick, which scratched our knees as we pushed through them. Sometimes we rode up the dry bed of a watercourse, at other times we struck right into the thorny forest of mimosa bushes. At last we came to a more civilised part of the country, and halted in the bed of a small river called Maitumloo, where at some deep pools the cattle were being watered by the boys of the village, who were minding them. Here we stopped for about half an hour, watering our mules and resting ourselves; we then made for the village of Zadawalka. We did not actually go straight up to the village, but camped in the usual camping-place for travellers who go by this route, that is to say, close to the water, of which there was a large pool here. We pitched our tent on a little ledge just over the pool, where there was barely room for the tent and the camp fire. We had got in early this afternoon, having come along at a pretty good pace; Petros and Hadji Mahomet had happened to lose their way in the jungle, and did not come at all that evening.

Our coolies that we had brought from Koudoofellassie, had, as is usual with most blacks when they travel, brought very little food with them, for when natives go a journey it is usually a succession of forced marches, which they manage to do with wonderfully little nourishment. They were all seated at the pool, having washed off the dust of the journey, talking and chattering, when there appeared in sight some villagers, who Brou, the interpreter, told me were returning from a funeral feast. Of course the coolies understood very well the state of affairs. The natives at feasts in this country not only eat as much as they can, but also contrive to take away with them what they cannot manage to cram down their throats; so here was a prospect of a good meal for our coolies. A rush was made at a batch of small boys and men who were returning, their clothes were almost torn off their backs, and the bread and "tef" which they had concealed about their persons were seized and devoured by our hungry men. This was the first batch of visitors, and our men were in anticipation of more coming. At last some more appeared, this time bearing a large earthenware jar, which was thought to contain beer, but, alas! it was empty. There were other natives that our men thought had some bread with them, and they accordingly hustled them, but found none. During the struggle, a coolie was pushed backwards into the muddy pool, and was rather astonished to find himself seated in the water, much to the amusement of ourselves and all the servants but himself: he sneaked back and sat down by the fire to dry the few rags he had on him as best he could. Three or four more villagers came by, among them two young Abyssinians, who said, "You have been robbing our people—you will see what we will do to you to-morrow!" I think they were a little the worse for the "tej" and beer they had been drinking, as they boasted and were very impudent. At last they got a little too "cheeky," saying, "You are a Rass" (which means a lord, in Abyssinia), "and ought to know better than let your servants do this." This rather annoyed me, so I jumped across the stream, snatched one of the sticks out of their hands, and gave them two or three cuts across the back, as hard as I could, and told the interpreter to tell them that was the way a Rass was accustomed to treat people who were impudent; so they went away rather frightened, amid the jeers of the servants and coolies.

My readers may think this was rather a summary proceeding, especially as our servants had been robbing the people of their bread; but it is a thing always taken for granted, as people are supposed to be hungry when they are travelling, and those that were robbed took it as a very good joke, and laughed and chaffed, especially when they were searched and found to have no victuals of any description concealed on their persons. My grey mule, which K. gave me at Gindar, had a sore back, and I was afraid he would only just be able to take me into Adiaboo, where I should have to give him up and get another.