90 SPORT IN ABYSSINIA. 



river-bed. The jungle also gave us most delicious 

 wild tomatos, and as it was the dry season it had 

 up to this time been almost impossible to procure any 

 green vegetables, except the gram before mentioned. 

 These tomatos were very acceptable, they were the 

 sweetest I ever ate, far better in flavour than our 

 own cultivated ones ; we used to make excellent 

 salads with them, and also get them stewed. I 

 had felt the want of green vegetables very much, 

 and I am persuaded that, in a hot country, eating 

 largely of provisions preserved in tins is not at all 

 good. 



The ballaga to whom the field belonged in which 

 we were camped said a lion used frequently to come 

 and bask in the sun and look at him while he was at 

 his work, not taking the smallest notice. There must 

 have been some of these animals about, as we used to 

 see fresh tracks almost every day ; but, alas ! not one 

 single one did we catch sight of the whole time ; and 

 as all sportsmen know who have been in Africa, there 

 is no animal so hard to discover or get near when 

 seen. The lion is scarcely the noble beast which is 

 seen represented in pictures, or read of in nursery 

 books and fables ; on the contraiy, he feeds on 

 carrion when he can get it, and sneaks away at the 

 approach of man. The tiger in India is a much finer 

 animal. In the evening I went a few hundred yards 



