ABYSSINIAN HUNTERS. 145 



skipped over the road as freely as if it had been soft 

 turf, and suffered no inconvenience from the sharp 

 surfaces. Still more curious was the way in which 

 they stood and talked unconcernedly, though their 

 naked feet rested on ice and snow, and their legs were 

 bare half way to the knee. I asked several of them 

 whether they did not suffer from the cold, but they 

 all agreed in saying that they did not feel the cold 

 inconvenient, except when they wore boots. 



It does not need that boots or shoes should never 

 have been worn, in order to produce this insensibility 

 of foot. Hunters in North America always abandon 

 the boot for the moccasin, which is only a single 

 thickness of hide lashed over the foot. At first, the 

 civilised hunter finds walking very painful, but in a 

 short time his feet become accustomed to their work, 

 and the man almost looks forward with horror to the 

 time when he must return to civilisation and boots. 



When Air. Mansfield Parkyns was on his hunting 

 tour in Abyssinia he very wisely conformed to the 

 dress of the natives, and always went barefooted. 

 He was soon able, as they were, to follow the chase 

 on foot, over sand, or rocks, or through bush. After 

 the day's hunting was over, he, like the natives, 

 had his feet overhauled, in order to find whether any 

 thorns or splinters might be sticking in them. 



On one occasion he narrates how he incautiously 



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