2 3 o SPORT IN ABYSSINIA. 



but seemed to get farther from me. To my astonish- 

 ment, among some stunted bushes I saw two gazelles 

 grazing. I alighted and successfully stalked one, but 

 missed him as he bounded away. I was too weak 

 and ill for shooting, so I mounted my mule again 

 and soon found myself under the welcome shelter 

 of K.'s little house. Waldemariam had got every- 

 thing ready for me, and some fresh baked bread, 

 which was a great luxury. We had left a box of 

 provisions behind here, which I immediately broke 

 into, and to my great joy I found two bottles of 

 claret and other provisions which we had brought up 

 here. I made my dinner of fresh bread, fried sar- 

 dines, and a bottle of claret — just about the very worst 

 diet I could have taken under the circumstances ; 

 the consequence being that I was terribly ill all 

 night. 



MarcJi 23. — About four in the morning I heard a 

 cry outside in the village, and then a wailing and 

 lamentation, mixed up with donkeys braying and 

 cocks crowing. It transpired that an old man, who 

 had been ill for some time, had just died. This 

 was an unpleasant thing to happen, and was not 

 calculated to raise my spirits under the circumstances 

 in which I was placed. Later in the morning a 

 brother of Naib Abdul Kerim came to see me. The 

 Naib was the man who brought us up here, and who 



