1 88 A SPORTING TRIP THROUGH ABYSSINIA chap. 



heat was so great that I decided to put off the climb up 

 the opposite side till the cool of the next morning. A 

 caravan of merchants from Gojam, on their way to Adis 

 Ababa, halted under our tree in the afternoon for a rest 

 and a chat with my men. I showed them my rifles and 

 some illustrated papers. Portraits of the Queen, as a 

 girl and at the present day, and of our generals in South 

 Africa excited most interest. Later on, I weighed my- 

 self and most of the men. In breeches and shirt-sleeves, 

 without boots, I pulled down 158 lbs. Warsama, at 121 

 lbs,, was the lightest, and Hussein, at 140 lbs., the 

 heaviest of the four Somalis ; while Adarar, 102J lbs., 

 was the light-weight among the Abyssinians, and Destar, 

 151 lbs., a Galla, the heavy-weight. After this the men 

 did various tricks, of which, I think, standing with the 

 feet close together and picking up a stick from the 

 ground in the teeth, was the most agile. Then Hussein 

 Hadji gave us an exhibition of his sense of smell ; first 

 telling which of three stones had been touched, and then, 

 which of four of us had touched a particular stone. He 

 and the other Somalis said this was nothing, and that 

 some could tell which man in their own tribe had handled 

 a spear belonging to another, and went on to recount 

 instances, which, if true, proved these men to have a 

 keener sense of smell than a dog. 



Early next morning I crossed the stream of clear 

 water — only some 30 feet wide and knee-deep — before 

 the caravan, and worked along some scrub, but saw no 

 game. Half way up the cliff, from a little cultivated 

 plateau, I took some photos of the valley before com- 

 mencing the long climb to the top. Running along the 



