CHAPTER XXXI 



A fertile valley and a flight of locusts — Inchatkab, capital of Simien — The 

 governor lives at his palace gate — An early call — Big ibex — Sunday 

 morning — Queer trees and legends — A trying march — A great troop 

 of mantled baboons — Lost in the clouds — Among the Simien mountains 

 — Strange scenery — Sight ibex — An awkward shot — Success — A 

 splendid trophy — A native meal — Ibex haunts. 



The night before eight mules had strayed, and it was 

 late in the morning before six of them were recovered, 

 when, without waiting for the remaining two, I climbed 

 to the path above and continued my journey in a south- 

 east direction. Away to the S.S.W. rose a pinnacle 

 of rock strangely like Westminster clock tower. In an 

 hour I reached the side of the wide and fertile valley of 

 Balaguz, with many villages, surrounded by cultivated 

 land, dotted about ; across the valley, to the south-east, 

 towered a steep and barren hill, crowned by Inchatkab, 

 the capital of the province. I n descending the hill-side, we 

 passed some giant cactus trees and soon after encountered 

 a flight of locusts ; at first there was only about one to 

 every blade of grass, but soon the ground was deeply 

 covered with them, and the whole sky darkened by their 

 swarms. We crossed the stream and turned to our left 

 up the course of a tributary — the Serracum ; then struck 

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