94 EXPEDITION INTO 



handling, and the presentation of t^^'0 bunches of heads to 

 himselfj and a brass- wire coUar to his Httle son^ whilst it 

 firmly cemented our friendship^ terminated our acquaintance 

 for ever^ under a parting- assurance^ that he had made a 

 favourable report of us to his royal master^ who was^ he 

 said^ " 3Ionanti, 3Ionanti, llonanti" or in plain Engdishj 

 the most o-racious of sovereiofns. 



As the wag'g'ons proceeded, we turned off the road in 

 search of a rhinoceros, and speedily became so entangled in 

 a labyrinth of thorn fences, newly constructed to entrap 

 g-ame, that we had g-reat difficulty in extricating- ourselves. 

 Stiflt' thorn branches, too hig'hto be surmounted, were firmly 

 fixed in the g'round, and so entwined amidst a dense grove 

 of mimosas, that after fruitless endeavours to force a passag'e 

 in various places, we found that we had ridden completely 

 round the enclosure, to the point at which we had first 

 entered. 



In the course of two hours the wag-gons had reached the 

 termination of the plain, and were beg-inmng- to ascend the 

 ridg-e which bounds the valley of Moseg-a. We shortly 

 afterwards entered a pass, or gap, which conducted us be- 

 tween two ranges of the Kurrichane hills ; the slopes on 

 either side were covered with stately trees, from which de- 

 pended clusters of moss and festoons of various parasitic 

 plants- The ground ^^'as broken and stony, and in parts 

 abounded with deep holes. In the act of killing* a sassa^be, 

 m}^ horse put his feet into one of these, and came down with 

 frig-htful violence, cutting- my knees and elboAvs to the bone, 

 breaking his own nose, and what was a far gTeater misfortune, 

 and one that I had long* anticipated, fracturing* the stock of 

 my only and especially favourite rifle. I could have wept, if 

 the doing so would have availed anything*. A strip of the 

 sassaybe's hide rectified the damag*e, for the present at least ; 

 and having- packed the flesh in the wag-gon, we continued 



