SFOIi T IN ABYSSINIA. 1 1 5 



among the houses for some honey ; and the natives 

 sold us a large gumbo, or jar, full of honey, for a 

 dollar. They were very civil, but, as usual, our 

 servants amused themselves by purloining as many 

 little things and eatables as they could lay their 

 hands on. We agreed to camp by a stream which 

 was a little way on, and where the table-land ended, 

 called Maihumloo. The descent down into the 

 little valley, or ravine, was very pretty, and when 

 we got down to the bottom the country was almost 

 like a pleasure-ground, rills of trickling water ran 

 across our path, and various shrubs bearing sweet- 

 smelling flowers grew in every direction ; it only 

 wanted neat gravel walks to make it the most perfect 

 of gardens. We fixed our camp by the side of the 

 stream. Any future traveller would know the spot 

 very well, as a white-faced rock rises up from the 

 stream, with bushes growing over it. 



An old lady in the village had asked me if I 

 should like to buy some Dargousa spirit ; I told 

 her if she liked to bring it down to our camp that I 

 would purchase it. Accordingly she followed us 

 down and produced two bottles of this native spirit, 

 which I thought would be a good thing to give to our 

 coolies, as they had had an exceedingly long march 

 and were completely done up, and when we halted 

 they most of them lay down unable to move. One 



