244 A SPORTING TRIP THROUGH ABYSSINIA chap. 



hand, plenty of good donkeys were generally to be had. 

 I bought four, at prices varying from 7^- to 9 dollars. 

 Besides grains and condiments of all sorts, butter, 

 honey, potatoes, cotton (both raw and woven), swords, 

 and shields of buffalo-hide were all to be had, of good 

 quality and cheap. The district is most famous for its 

 tanned leather, which is either left in whole skins, 

 for sleeping on, or made into sacks. Instead of the 

 empty cartridge-cases I had seen so far used as the 

 small change for a salt, the people here gave handfuls 

 of raw cotton. Among the hides e.xposed for sale 

 were those of roan antelope, tora, defassa, bohor, oribi, 

 and duiker, all of which had been recently killed. 



One market-day a party of hunters returned from 

 the low country ; many were accompanied by their dogs 

 and armed only with spears. They had slain a buffalo, 

 the tail of which they carried stretched on a framework 

 of wood to dry. 



The only curio I found during my visits to the 

 market was one of the large horn tumblers, ten inches 

 high, from which the people drink tej or tala. 



Ten days after my messenger had left to take the 

 letters to Ras Mangasha, he returned. He reported 

 that, owing to the west side of Lake Tana being infested 

 with robbers, he had gone by the east bank. At Chelkar 

 he saw Dedjatch Cubudda, son of Ras Beettiwadad 

 Mangasha, who was laid up with a severe gun-shot 

 wound in the leg. He told my man that, while on a 

 shooting e.xcursion to the west, he had ridden down 

 and tried to capture a baby elephant ; its cries had 

 brouo-ht the herd back, and his men, alarmed for his 



