SPORT IN ABYSSINIA. 79 



eleven A.M., or perhaps a little before, I started with 

 Brou for Adgousmou, the next village we were to stop 

 at. Goubasec, who was my gun-bearer, walked the 

 whole time in front of my mule ; I stopped under a 

 tree for about fifteen minutes and then went on. This 

 was a long march, and we were going fast. Goubasee 

 eventually turned out to be, as I had thought he 

 was, a wonderful walker, always in front of everybody 

 in the longest march, and never shirking any difficulty 

 that came in his way ; in fact, he was a most faithful 

 and useful servant, the only Abyssinian among our 

 crew whom I could really depend upon. The country 

 we w^ere going through was table-land intersected by 

 broad ravines. 



My servants pointed me out two large trees in the 

 distance ; near these they said was the village of 

 Adgousmou. Abyssinian servants have quite an ori- 

 ginal way of provisioning as they march along. 

 If they pass any cornfields, particularly the Indian 

 gram, they run into the corn and take as much 

 as they want, not only for their own eating, but 

 for their master's mules. This is done regardless 

 of the shouts and imprecations of the boys who 

 are sent out from the villages to watch the corn, 

 perched in some places on a high heap of stones, in 

 others on a rude platform supported on forked poles. 

 This same gram, if the pods when quite green arc 



