io6 SPORT IN ABYSSINIA. 



way under the mules. I very nearly got bogged, only 

 just slipping off my mule in time, and directly the 

 weight was off his back he recovered himself. The 

 banks of the river, on both sides, were fringed with 

 tamarisk bushes, which form a thick cover, a favourite 

 one in India for tigers. We fixed our camp at the 

 place where the Zareena joins the Mareb ; at this time 

 of the year — that is to say, the hot weather — ^^the 

 Zareena is a beautiful running stream, and the water, 

 the servants told us, was considered excellent. We 

 pitched our tent on the shingly bed of the Mareb, and 

 I amused myself, with the help of my gun-bearers, by 

 getting firewood for the night, as Fisk and the luggage 

 had not come up yet. On the way here we passed 

 some Abyssinians sitting in a small bower, made of 

 branches, which was constructed over a water pool. 

 They had come down from the villages to hunt — that 

 is to say, to squat over the pool watching in turns, 

 night and day, for any animal that might chance to 

 come and drink. I do not think they killed much 

 game, and they seemed to spend most of their time 

 smoking a pipe, a rude sort of hookah, with a cocoa- 

 nut as the receptacle for the water that the smoke 

 passed through. 



This evening I assembled our servants and coolies 

 and induced them to give us a dance and song in 

 their own fashion, I accompanying them on my banjo 



