66 A SPORTING TRIP THROUGH ABYSSINIA chap. 



well thatched to a point, with the outer wall of wattle 

 and the inner one of stouter wood, plastered on either 

 side with clay, the circular passage between the two 

 being filled with great urn -shaped coroubins of wicker- 

 work, covered with sun-baked clay, besides wood and 

 all sorts of stores. Here was a Custom-house and a 

 telephone station, also a watch-tower, built like an over- 

 grown nest, where a sentry was continually posted to 

 watch the highway below, which was barred at night by 

 a strong, high gate. The telephone clerk, a Shoan, had 

 been very civil and had given the visitors his best hut. 

 The floor and mud couches were spread with carpets and 

 skins, and round the walls were hung rifles, a shield, an 

 elephant's tail, and other trophies of the chase. He had 

 also provided them with water, which had to be brought 

 all the way from the river. H. said that, owing to the 

 refusal of the Oderali camel-drivers to go on to Godo- 

 burka that day, we should be delayed on the road for 

 twenty-four hours longer, but every one else said it was 

 at least another four days' journey. 



After dinner we lay down in the open, no tents 

 having been brought, and at 3.40 next morning started 

 with the intention of reaching Balji. The path was a 

 rough one, strewn with boulders, over which our mules 

 stumbled painfully in the dark. The country was un- 

 dulating and gradually rising, much of the ground being- 

 cultivated. Godoburka lies at the foot of a high, steep 

 cliff, on one side of a rocky gorge, down which in the 

 rainy season there rushes a torrent, but when we saw it 

 a mere trickle fed two much befouled pools. Up the 

 side of this gorge winds a well - made zigzag path 



