SFOUT IN ABYSSINIA. 83 



Borum Bras, brought with him a man chained to 

 one of his soldiers ; this individual, who was, I be- 

 lieve, a murderer, was going to the king to be tried. 

 The law in Abyssinia is the old Mosaic one — " an 

 eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." 



Jan. 20. — We started about half-past nine in the 

 morning, accompanied by Borum Bras., the chief, and 

 all his followers. He was to go with us as far as the 

 boundary of his province, and there leave us. He 

 rode a very fine mule, with his horse led in front of 

 him. The mule turned out to be a fencer; Borum Bras, 

 popping over a thorn hedge in very good form as we 

 went along. We stopped for a short rest at Adwahla, 

 a village, and Borum Bras, made his followers bring 

 us some beer, which is made from the Dargousa 

 grain. I thought it very nasty, but my servants 

 soon drank it all. I saw a rather curious pheno- 

 menon here : there w^as a sudden rush of wind, 

 then in a moment we were enveloped in a cloud of 

 dust. It was one of those whirlwinds which very 

 often occur in the East, especially on broad plains. 

 There is not a breath of wind stirring, but, all of a 

 sudden, you see a little curl of dust coming towards 

 you ; and it gets larger and larger as it proceeds. All 

 the dust of the village was carried up in a column 

 towards the skies. One of Borum Bras.'s servants, on 

 seeing this, immediately covered me up in the cotton 



