VI A CHRISTMAS DINNER 6i 



few hundred yards from the river. Tiffin over, I got 

 out the ingredients for our Christmas dinner and then 

 repacked store-boxes — a job which often fell to my lot — 

 after which I went for a stroll up-stream with the rifle. 

 It was a pretty scene, the river twisting about between 

 grass-covered sloping banks, overshadowed with trees. 

 Here and there lay a silent, reed-encircled pool, followed 

 by a bit of rushing, broken water, where the channel 

 narrowed. Kingfishers darted about, and on the further 

 bank we watched a bushbuck and its kid grazing. I 

 reached camp at dusk and found the others ready for 

 dinner. The toasts — "Absent friends " and "Success 

 to the trip" were drunk in champagne-cup. 



We had originally intended following the unexplored 

 course of the Hawash to Zoquala, making a flying visit 

 to Adis Ababa, either from that point or from where 

 the bridge crosses the river, on the main road from 

 Harrar, but H. decided that this would take too long, 

 and that we must push on towards the capital by double 

 marches, leaving the caravan at the last place where 

 good grass was to be found, while we rode up to Adis 

 Ababa and back to our men in the shortest time possible. 



