148 A SPORTING TRIP THROUGH ABYSSINIA chap. 



pillars were covered in dust-sheets. After greeting me 

 with a smile and a hearty hand-shake, the Negus signed to 

 me to be seated on a chair to his right, and an attendant 

 brought me a large tumbler of tej, covered with a silk 

 handkerchief. The Emperor's first inquiries were about 

 Captain Harrington. "Was he seriously ill ? Was he 

 in pain? Did I think he would soon be well? He 

 must be careful not to expose himself to cold." All of 

 these remarks he made in a voice of real concern, and 

 evidently not from mere politeness. I thanked the 

 Emperor for the passports promised me, and specially 

 for according me permission to cross the frontier into 

 Erythrea. I explained that my reasons for wishing to 

 leave by Massowah were, that the rains would have 

 commenced, and that I heard I should cross a good 

 country for lions and hoped to shoot some, as last 

 time, in Somaliland, I had only got two, and those not 

 very big. "But," said he, "two lions are always two 

 lions." Then I told him how anxious I was to bag the 

 Abyssinian ibex, as great interest was taken in England 

 in the question whether it was the same as the Arabian 

 species, and that so far no complete specimen had been 

 brought to Europe. He replied that he believed I 

 should find plenty of them in Simien, but that the cold 

 there was very great and there would be much snow. I 

 said that I had at different times shot over twenty ibex 

 in the Himalayas, and had spent three winters there, so 

 that I did not fear the cold. "On which side of the 

 Himalayas were you, and is the altitude greater there 

 than here ? " was the immediate inquiry. I replied that 

 I had shot on both sides of the great range, and went on 



