ON THE TERTALA PLATEAU LANDS. 243 
of this stream, and I was surprised to see my two Tertala 
guides cover their bodies with the sand, so that they 
glistened like a doll on a Christmas tree. 
The next day we managed to reach the high plateau 
land, and to march as far as a large settlement of Tertala 
Boran called Lenja. There were over twenty villages 
scattered about a small valley, comprising in all some two 
thousand huts. As we reached our camping-place by a 
small, muddy pool of water, we were met by the chiefs of 
the villages, who promised us every assistance. I saw 
larger herds of cattle here than I have seen anywhere 
outside of Texas. They must have numbered over ten 
thousand, I told the natives that King Abofilato had 
promised me a handsome present, but that now, since he 
had not sent it, they must bring plenty of their animals 
to me to trade. Dodson and I and several of the boys 
were beginning to suffer from fever, probably the results 
of living near the Galana; but the attacks did not last 
long, and the pure air of the Tertala Mountains soon 
made us strong as ever.” We remained at Lenja the next 
day, but I found the natives the meanest and _ hardest 
people to deal with I had yet met. They b-ought only 
three lean sheep and a few bowls of milk. 
I told them they could take all these things beck, as 
they well knew I had seventy-three men t . 7 After 
much wrangling, they left u.. camp and sat under a tree, 
holding their heads together and talking as seriously as 
though their lives were at stake. 
In about half an hour they returned to my tent, and 
in as dignified a manner as possible first one and then 
another took ‘is position cross-legged in a circle on the 
1 On boiling a thermometer, I found the Tertala plateau lands to be at an 
elevation of five thousand feet, with mountain peaks rising five hundred feet 
higher. 
