346 A SPORTING TRIP THROUGH ABYSSINIA chap. 



after an absence of just thirty days. My men, who were 

 all right, had moved camp to a spot where there was 

 better grass, and we spent the afternoon in settling down. 

 I heard that Dedjatch Merrit and the Canterbi had left 

 Gondar, in fact that all Ras Mangasha's people had been 

 recalled, to make way for those appointed by the new 

 Ras who was to succeed him. Next day I had all the 

 skins out and found many were damaged by beetles ; 1 

 was especially annoyed to find that some bohor heads, 

 which Hussein had been ordered to boil, had been put 

 away with the flesh on, the result of which was that the 

 beetles had even attacked the softer parts of the horns. 



In the evening, a man who had undertaken, after 

 much persuasion, to try and get me some church paint- 

 ings and relics, brought several wood-panels and a long 

 roll of coarse cotton-cloth painted with Biblical subjects. 

 These things are now extremely difficult to procure, as 

 sacrilege is severely punished ; but I had no compunction 

 in buying these fragments, which, after escaping the 

 hands of the Dervishes, had been thrust away into dusty 

 corners, where they were rapidly going to decay. In 

 this way, besides the panels and several pieces of cloth, 

 I was able to secure a sacred drum, some old books, a 

 large brass cross, and a pair of sistrums, besides several 

 smaller things. 



Next morning my Abyssinians turned up in a body 

 to say that four of their number were sick, and that 

 they proposed waiting where they were till these had 

 recovered. I noticed that those who had stayed at 

 Gondar all the time were the spokesmen, and suspected 

 that temporary liaisons and tej had more to do with 



