SPORT IN ABYSSINIA. 167 



of staying in camp and perfecting my cure, I stupidly 

 went out and did a hard day's work, standing up to 

 my middle under water in a hot sun, to complete the 

 raft. The raft when finished was, to speak fairly, a 

 great success. It was made in the following way : 

 Six logs of the dome-palm tree were lashed with raw 

 hide, cut from the skin of one of the cows which we 

 had killed in camp ; the logs were lashed to two cross 

 pieces, and from one cross piece to the other I fixed 

 two thin pliable boughs, under which I jammed a lot 

 of dry " hippopotamus grass " (the long grass growing 

 by the side of the river), which had been cut a 

 day or two before and put out in the sun on the 

 shingly bank of the river to dry. The grass was 

 jammed in under these thin sticks, so that it went 

 across the logs and made a place for any one to 

 stand in, and also assisted in promoting the buoyancy 

 of the raft. 



A caravan of about three or four hundred people 

 came across the river to-day on their way to 

 Walkait. These caravans generally assemble in 

 Tigre, in order to make up a large number, so that 

 their goods may be properly cared for in case of 

 any attack by the Baria. One man among them 

 had a couple of very good-looking donkeys ; he 

 must have procured them from some of the Arab 

 tribes who live on the borders of the country ; I tried 



