SFOR T IN ABYSSINIA. 229 



even more charmiiifj in the daytime than it had 

 looked in the Hght of a tropical moon, the condition 

 under which we last saw it. I passed by Scllaadarou, 

 the place where we had encamped, and saw the re- 

 maining marks of the two large bonfires we had made. 

 After leaving this place I met some natives on the 

 road ; one of them was carrying in his hand a club 

 made of the wild olive wood : it was a beautifully- 

 shaped weapon, and I induced him, after great per- 

 suasion, to sell it to me for a dollar. He would not 

 hear of parting with it at first, but some of his com- 

 panions told him he was a great fool not to sell it, 

 as he could get many others, and a dollar was a good 

 price for the stick. 



Travelling on, I found myself on the large plain 

 of Asmarra. Notwithstanding the precautions the 

 people had taken the cattle disease had got among 

 their beasts, and I saw several lying down, stretched 

 out, dying by the side of the pools. The wind 

 blew cold as I crossed the plain, and I wrapped 

 the cotton shama that I had tightly round me. 

 We were a small and wretched-looking party, as 

 we wound our way slowly across this bare table- 

 land ; the hardships and long journeys had told 

 pretty severely upon all of us. I thought the plain 

 would never cease, and K.'s little house, with the 

 extinguisher-shaped roof, rose up in the distance, 



