CHAPTER XXV 



I reach Lake Tana — Fertile soil — How chillies are grown — Fine cattle — 

 Where the Abbai falls into Lake Tana — A primitive ferry — An un- 

 willing host — The lake and its isles — The curious course of the Blue 

 Nile — Hippo-hunters and their arms — Hippos at play — A queer bird 

 — Fear of robbers — Ruined villages — A rich country laid waste — 

 Signs of the Dervish raid —A bone-strewn battlefield. 



Next morning, ist May 1900, leaving the track, we 

 hunted over the hills till we crossed the main ridge and 

 descended the eastern slope of the watershed. We soon 

 came upon one old kudu-track and a few fresh ones of 

 pig ; but the first animal we sighted was a bohor, which 

 I shot, and from the raw flesh of which all the Abys- 

 sinians who accompanied me made a light meal. We 

 were now on the edge of a great plain stretching as far 

 as the eye could reach, only broken by a few of those 

 rough masses of rock which look as though they had been 

 dropped accidentally when the mountains of Abyssinia 

 were raised. We halted close to the foot of one of the 

 largest, called Denar Ambassa, by the little village of 

 Assenara, where the people brought us milk and tala. 

 Then on across the plain, grass giving place to cultiva- 

 tion, till we reached an almost continuous succession of 



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