284 A SPORTING TRIP THROUGH ABYSSINIA 



here, but the outlaws so often came and demanded to 

 be fed in addition, that the game was not worth the 

 candle, and so they could stand it no longer, and were 

 going to strike and move north. Besides a large herd 

 of fine cattle, they had some good donkeys, one of which 

 1 bought. Two hours more brought us to camp at 

 Dagussa, close to some large huts, which had lately 

 sheltered a party of the robbers. All day we had been 

 passing numerous little bays mostly from half to a mile and 

 a half across, nearly all with signs of abandoned cultivation 

 and ruined houses round their shores. In the evening 

 my men got up a row with some of the escort over a log 

 of wood, which each said the other had carried off from 

 them ; in a moment the whole place was in a turmoil, and 

 for a short time matters looked threatening ; fortunately, 

 however, the disputants were dragged apart before they 

 came to blows, when I instituted an inquiry, decided that 

 my men were in the wrong, and saw the coveted log 

 restored. 



Next morning, after going a few miles, the escort 

 asked leave to return to their villages, as we should reach 

 the northern shore and be in safety before the evening, 

 while, if the robbers heard of so many of them being- 

 absent from their homes, they might attempt to 

 loot them. We passed the walled church of Delgee 

 Mariam, burnt by the Dervishes when they raided 

 the country twelve years ago ; next, a place called 

 Gohel, where the Gojam forces, under command of 

 Ras Tecla Haymanot, as he was then, met the Dervish 

 hordes after the looting of Gondar and utterly defeated 

 them. Many skulls and bones were still to be seen 



