172 A SPORTING TRIP THROUGH ABYSSINIA chap. 



tent, where the fallen pole had originally stood, the mass seemed to be 

 convulsed by a strong extra gust, and the damp and dishevelled 

 militiaman crawled out of the debris, where he had gallantly dived to the 

 rescue of a new cookery book. We then decided that it would be 

 useless to stop till the other two poles fell ; it was better to bolt 

 through the hail and flood to my tucul, which stood some 20 yards 

 beliind the tent. So piling the books and papers on the chairs, we 

 accordingly did so, getting soaked to the skin on our journey. After 

 banging at the door, we were let in by my Egyptian servant, Abdel Aal, 

 tarbouchless and bootless, with some slight indication of surprise on his 

 India-rubber face, who was engaged in baling out my bedroom. Here 

 the water was coming through, as if there was no sign of roof.; on 

 the floor a large canvas ground-sheet with turned up edges had been 

 spread, and here a lake was formed, some 18 inches deep. It was 

 only by constant baling that the water was prevented from overflowing 

 and filling the main tucul. In this part of the building there were only 

 a few legitimate leaks, considering the downpour, and these were easily 

 kept in hand with buckets, baths, and basins, spread on the floor. 



The storm showed no sign of abating. Harrington made a dash 

 for his tucul, and the Honorary Attache (his head tied up in a towel), 

 for the spot where his green tent was last seen waving in the wind, 

 Abdel Aal continued to bale, and I sat over an oil-lamp. Presently 

 Harrington and the Honorary Attache returned, drenched. Harring- 

 ton's tucul was leaking at every point, and his bed was sopping. The 

 Honorary Attache's tent hung by one peg, and a stream, 6 inches deep, 

 rushed through it. Having piled his rifles inside the bed, seized a suit 

 of khaki, and tilted his boxes on one end, he waded back to my 

 tucul. 



Here we all waited till 7.30, when the rain stopped, and we went 

 out to survey the damage. The partially fallen tent stood as we left it 

 with a large rent in the roof, through which the middle pole projected. 

 The large mess-tent mercifully had stood firm ; its fall would have been 

 a serious catastrophe, for there were stored the whole of the plate, glass, 

 and crockery.. This had no doubt been saved to a great extent by the 

 permanent house in course of construction immediately in front of it. 

 The half-finished building had suffered little ; it only looked a little 

 more grotesque than before, a collection of matchwood Martello 

 towers. 



We got out a dozen boys and had the tent-pegs driven in, and the 



