SPOR T IN ABYSSINIA. 195 



CHAPTER XI. 



AN INGENIOUS BED — EN ROUTE FOR THE COAST — A SAD PLIGHT — 

 UNPLEASANT TRAVELLING — FRIENDS — FORCIBLE PERSUASION — AN 

 AMUSING ENCOUNTER — AN ADVENTURE — I OPEN A BAZAAR — PRICES 

 — HOSPITALITY — HAGGLING — REINFORCEMENT — LETTERS FROM 

 HOME ^ A MISERABLE NIGHT— FALSE RUMOURS — I SELL TWO 

 DONKEYS — "HARD UP " — GEESE AND HORNBILLS— ILL-TIMED 

 THEFT — STRANGE QUARTERS — TOOTH-BRUSHES. 



March 8. — I was very bad all last night ; I think I 

 had eaten too much meat at dinner. I am writing 

 my journal with a pen made out of a guinea-fowl 

 quill, and with ink composed of some gunpowder, pre- 

 served milk and water, mixed up together — rather a 

 curious combination. My little camp bed is so small 

 that I asked Mahomet, my bearer, if he could make 

 me any sort of bed rather bigger. He said, " I make 

 bed Abyssinian fashion .'*" and I replied "Yes." He 

 set to work, with the help of Goubasee and Guyndem, 

 to make an inchat algar, which is their word for a 

 wooden bed. They cut four short forked poles and 

 stuck them upright in the ground ; the holes they put 

 them into were grubbed out with the iron tent pegs. 



