IT TRY AMARA HOSPITALITY. 215 
the lofty mountains of the Jan Jams to northeast of us, and 
lying near Lake Abaya. To the northwest, mountain-tops 
as far as the eye can see marked the territory occupied by 
the Konso people, while to the north lay the country of the 
Jeratu. I was now three hours away from camp, but the 
Amara told me their village was very near, and I was 
tempted to go still farther. We pushed on over the undu- 
lating plateau, passing one cornfield after another, in which 
hundreds of natives were working away with their three- 
pronged hoes. 
The village was always “just over the next hill.” I kept 
on for another hour, and beheld the village appearing on 
a rocky peak, and still a good half-hour away. It was now 
a question of returning, or going to the village to spend 
the night. The chief told me he would give me a house 
and food and a wife if I would remain until morning. 
I had gone so far that I did not like to return without 
seeing the village, and if I did not go back directly I should 
not arrive at the camp that night; so I accepted his kind 
offer, — except the wife, — as I could not resist the tempta- 
tion of trying Amara hospitality, and studying something of 
their customs. Most of the broad top of the mountain is 
terraced, and planted in Indian corn, durrha, beans, pump- 
kins, coffee, a kind of cabbage, cotton, tobacco, and ba- 
nana-trees. Many are the isolated huts scattered about. 
Several peaks rise from the plateau, and it is on the most 
picturesque of these that the beautiful village of the Amara 
is situated. The thatched dwellings rise one above the 
other, shaded by tall cedar-trees, and separated by beautiful 
gardens in which grow many tropical plants, while trailing 
down over the natural rock terraces are various flowering 
vines. 
I was much struck with the picturesqueness of the spot, 
high up among the clouds as it was, and where the cold 
