398 A SPORTING TRIP THROUGH ABYSSINIA chap. 



wretches bleeding to death. While one cannot but 

 deplore the barbarity of this punishment, it must be 

 remembered that for centuries it had been the law in 

 Abyssinia that he who raises his hand against his 

 sovereign should lose not only that hand but a foot as 

 well ; and that after the taking of Makalle, when the 

 garrison was allowed to go free, the nativ^e soldiers 

 were warned what would happen to them or any other 

 Abyssinian, if caught again fighting in the Italian 

 service. A good deal has been written about the muti- 

 lation of the dead and dying, and it is undoubtedly the 

 fact that some of the Southern Gallas did carry out their 

 usual practice on a fallen enemy ; but Menelik and many 

 of the other leaders did all they could to prevent it, and 

 those caught red-handed were severely punished. Over 

 50 mountain guns, 15,000 rifles, all the transport and the 

 camp equipage at Enticho, besides quantities of personal 

 loot, fell into the hands of the Abyssinians. The 

 scattered remnants of the Italian army gradually col- 

 lected at the forts of Adi Ugri and Asmara, there to 

 await reinforcements from Italy and the dispersal of the 

 hostile forces. The failure of the Italian government 

 to inform Baratieri that he was to be superseded and 

 that in the meantime he was not to make any forward 

 movement, want of correct information, and the failure 

 to carry out the concerted attack simultaneously, were 

 the successive causes of the disaster. From all I have 

 heard, the troops, both white and native, appear to 

 have fought splendidly ; the Ascaris remained by their 

 officers till the last, and many, when their leaders had 

 all fallen, instead of attempting to save themselves by 



