34 A SPORTING TRIP THROUGH ABYSSINIA chap. 



and not much appeased when the natives came up and 

 explained that they had shouted for the express purpose 

 of driving the beast away, as W. had no business to 

 be shooting in their country. The Oderah are great 

 sportsmen, and ride down both kudu and oryx. 



Next morning, while the caravan was starting for 

 Gurto, near the chief's village, I worked down the banks 

 of the Herrer, but saw no game. When I reached camp 

 I found the other three had gone off after reported 

 elephants ; they came in later, having seen nothing but 

 old tracks. 



Tombacca's village was nearly a mile distant. It 

 consisted of the usual collection of mud -daubed straw 

 huts, surrounded with a thorn-fence, the whole place 

 teeming with children, goats, sheep, and dogs, not to 

 mention smaller game. On our arrival, Tombacca came 

 and talked the greater part of the afternoon, boasting of 

 the big presents he had extracted from French parties 

 which were traversing his country, the number of rifles he 

 possessed, and so on. We were rather in his power, as 

 we had to hire camels from him, to replace the ten we 

 had taken from Gurgura, whose drivers would go no 

 further, knowing full well that if they did they would 

 certainly be robbed of everything they possessed on their 

 return. Tombacca, being a bit of a humorist, would 

 look on it as an excellent joke, that they should have 

 done the work while he captured the money — to say 

 nothing of the camels. I should also mention that 

 Mahomed and our fifteen other camels had not yet 

 caught us up, as we had travelled faster than we had 

 intended (H. being so anxious to push on), and for their 



