A SIGN OF MOURNING 



being to exact a double amount from those who had no 

 passport, though I, of course, was exempt. I noticed 

 that nearly all the women about the place had deep 

 scratches on their temples, and asked my interpreter if 

 they had all been fighting. "Oh no," he replied, "a 

 big man of the village is dead, and they do that to 

 make tears come." Afterwards I was told, that to rend 

 the forehead with the nails is a regular sign of mourning 

 among Tigrean women, and old scars may often be 

 noticed. That evening, being near their long journey's 

 end, the Somalis and Abyssinians must needs fall out 

 and come to blows over a skin of honey which had been 

 given me, and which each accused the others of eating. 

 Having impartially punched the heads of the two chief 

 disputants for taking the law into their own hands, I 

 restored quiet. 



Next day we took an hour descending into the hot, 

 bush -covered valley, notorious for both malaria and 

 robbers. Here I found endless tracks of ant-bears, the 

 place being apparently one huge colony of them. 1 

 spent some time following up the midnight rambles of 

 one : it was curious to see how the animal had zig- 

 zagged about, now climbing half up an ant-heap and 

 tearing a hole in the outer crust with its powerful claws 

 then turning short back in its tracks to sink a trench in 

 search of ground-ants. I had always fancied that, when 

 they dug the big holes one finds in white-ant hills, they 

 ate their fill ; but this one was clearly a bit of a gourmand, 

 for although he had sampled quite a dozen different hills 

 he had dug double as many trenches, in search of some 

 sort of deep-burrowing ant, which he evidently preferred. 



