SFOJi T IN ABYSSINIA. 1 43 



arrived just at the right moment, and all were un- 

 injured and in as good order as when they had left 

 the gun-maker's shop in St. James's Street. The 

 little fellow who had brought them all this long way 

 was an Abyssinian that the missionaries had reared 

 and educated. He said he had had great difhculty 

 in getting along, and one of the coolies, having fallen 

 sick, had stayed at a village on the road. The first 

 thing we did was to give them plenty to eat and drink, 

 such as we had ; we then squared accounts wich 

 them, and they were to go back home the next day. 

 Most of this day was spent in unpacking the ammu- 

 nition and guns ; they seemed to be all right. To- 

 morrow we were to start for the Tackazzee, and to 

 leave all traces of civilisation, of any sort, behind us ; 

 while we were in the highest possible spirits and our 

 prospects were of the brightest. 



That evening I walked out and went up to the village 

 of Azho to see what it was like : on my way there I 

 "put up" some quail, but I did not fire at them. Azho 

 is a large straggling village built on a high plateau, 

 without any shade in or near it. Some of the natives 

 showed me the way up a steep hill, where I had 

 another view of the country we were going to, and I 

 came back when it was quite dark, having seen a 

 most beautiful sunset over the hills. IT. thought I 

 was lost, and was very nearly sending out to look 



