88 A SPORTING TRIP THROUGH ABYSSINIA chap. 



or three European paintings on canvas and a few 

 specimens of native art. The most interesting portion 

 of the church was the vestry, situated in a sort of 

 crypt. Here were piled in open chests, hung on nails or 

 cords, or stacked in corners, the most extraordinary collec- 

 tion of gorgeous -coloured vestments, mitres, crutches, 

 umbrellas, sacred books, sistrums, drums, incense-burners, 

 processional crosses, and all the properties used in the 

 elaborate ritual of the Abyssinian church, in fact a 

 perfect museum of curiosities, but all apparently in 

 hopeless confusion. How I should have liked to spend 

 a week turning over and examining these treasures! but 

 no such luck : the priests hustled us out, after permitting 

 us only a hurried glimpse at them. Later on I dis- 

 covered how very difficult it was to view these things, 

 for, although I often tried, there was but one other 

 occasion — at Adua — when I succeeded in getting a 

 sight of a similar store. In the evening Captain 

 Ciccodicola dined at the Agency, and we did our best 

 to console him for the departure of his friends, but he 

 was much depressed. 



Next morning some of us took out three of the four 

 greyhounds which formed part of Queen Victoria's 

 present to the Emperor, and tried one or two courses 

 after jackals ; the dogs ran well, but the jacks were too 

 quick at getting to ground. 



In the afternoon, five Russian doctors, in gorgeous 

 but dingy uniforms, and all wearing Abyssinian orders 

 of various degrees, came to call. They are members 

 of the medical mission, which Russia maintains in Adis 

 Ababa at an expense of some ^7000 a year, as a means of 



