144 A SPOIU^ING TRIP THROUGH ABYSSINIA chap. 



dry. Up to ten years ago, when all this country was 

 thickly populated, the people round were obliged to 

 fetch water from the Kassam river, to fill these tanks, 

 when the springs gave out ; but, since the great famine of 

 1890, this custom has fallen into disuse. On our journey 

 up they were dry, but on our return the recent rain had 

 partly filled them. After breakfast H. and I pushed on 

 to Tadechamalca, where we found Clarke and Perks 

 eagerly expecting us, after our absence of seventeen days, 

 instead of the six H. had intended to be away. We 

 found that several of the men were suffering from fever ; 

 so one of my first duties was to do some doctoring. 

 Those in charge of the base-camp had not been idle, 

 for Clarke had diligently worked up the map of our 

 journey, and Perks had added many fresh specimens of 

 birds to H.'s collection. I was glad to find all my 

 skins in good order and free from beetle, my men having 

 looked after them well. The other shikaris, to my 

 surprise, had, according to their own version, been 

 doing a lot of shooting, though not with very grand 

 results. Clarke experienced a narrow escape from a 

 venomous snake, which had curled itself up on his bed 

 among the straps and cases of some of the instruments. 

 Fortunately, as he was about to pick one of them 

 up, it moved, and he was just in time to draw back 

 before it struck. During one of his surveying ascents, 

 he had discovered the ruins of an ancient city, known 

 to the natives as Hallam, where the Emperor Zaracob 

 was defeated by Granya. The ruins cover a large 

 area, and regular streets can be traced among the piles 

 of fallen and overgrown masonry. 



