CHAPTER XXX 



Carpets of flowers — Ill-luck — A plucky boar and a near shave — A long 

 fast — More bad luck — An awful storm — Starvation Camp — The evil 

 eye — My last day after buffalo and how it resulted in failure — 

 Return to Gondar — Spoilt trophies — Relics from the churches — My 

 Abyssinians strike — -A change of governors no improvement — I set 

 out for Simien — A fine waterfall. 



The rains were now beginning to alter the whole aspect 

 of the country : instead of the universal khaki colour of 

 the ground and all that grew on it, the light verdure of 

 young grass was visible everywhere ; thorns were 

 flowering and trees bursting into leaf, while beds of 

 different coloured lilies formed bright carpets in the 

 valleys. Of the four most common species of the latter, 

 one {Crinum scabrttni) was a large plant, which stood 

 some 1 8 inches high, carrying from six to eight hand- 

 some white blossoms striped with mauve ; another 

 {Crimmi abyssiniuni) had a single pure white star-like 

 flower, with a sweet scent ; a third presented a little 

 cluster of white blooms, and a fourth kind had a single 

 mauve-coloured blossom, which grew close to the ground 

 and only just showed above the new grass. Another 

 result of the rain, which I did not so much appreciate, 

 was the appearance of numbers of snakes, of which my 



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