SPORT IN ABYSSINIA. 29 



donkeys, it would take up too mucli space to give 

 an account here. All I would recommend to the 

 traveller is to follow the custom of the country in 

 which he finds himself. He should not interfere with 

 the natives in loading, as, most likely, he will thereby 

 only display his ignorance, and they will get annoyed 

 and sulky at being interfered with. Sir Samuel 

 Baker, in his ' Nile Tributaries in Abyssinia,' gives 

 an interesting account of the mode in which he loaded 

 his donkeys for starting to Central Africa. 



Now, to continue our journey. The plain on which 

 we had been encamped soon ended, and then we be- 

 gan to ascend the hills. The ground was very rocky 

 and arid, only stunted bushes growing here and there. 

 We then came upon a small valley which reached to 

 the bank of a sandy river-bed, with rather thick 

 jungle on each side. One of the servants said we 

 should be likely to find some game here. I got off 

 my mule and walked up the bed of the river, telling 

 the man with my mule to go straight on with the rest 

 of the party, and that I would rejoin them after 

 making a slight detour. After I had gone a little 

 way a dik-dik crossed the dry river-bed in front of 

 me ; I fired at him, but it was too long a shot. I 

 then tried to circumvent some guinea-fowl, with 

 which the jungle fringing the banks of the watercourse 

 abounded ; they made the whole place alive with 



