SPORT IN ABYSSINIA. 1 1 



I found it very comfortable ; it almost made me fall 

 asleep. 



We saw no game on the plain we were crossing. 

 When we had got over the first range of small hills, 

 the guide, a Shoho Arab, stopped in the sandy bed 

 of a small river where some Arabs were watering their 

 flocks of goats. The water is got at by grubbing a 

 hole in the sandy bed of the river, and then the Arabs 

 scoop it up with a goatskin into a wooden trough, or, 

 failing that, into another hole made in the sand. 



Here we stopped for a short time, watered our 

 beasts, and asked the natives if they had seen any 

 game. They said there was something in some bushes 

 close by, whereupon we were both on the tiptoe of 

 expectation. I got my rifle ready, and H. his shot- 

 gun. We went towards the spot indicated, and, 

 almost among the herd of goats, I saw running about 

 a small brown-looking beast, like a very small deer. 

 We tried to stalk him, but he bolted past. H. 

 fired at him and missed ; I then fired my rifle and 

 missed also. We then kicked him out of another 

 bush, but H. did not see him, he having broken cover 

 on the wrong side. 



This animal turned out to be a little mouse-deer, 

 or dik-dik. In loading my rifle again, I rammed 

 down the bullet without putting in any powder, not 

 being accustomed to use muzzle-loading weapons. 



