50 SPORT AND TRAVEL PAPERS 



and constant to allow of sleep. Sometimes there was a pause, 

 and we both settled ourselves into as comfortable positions as 

 possible to court Morpheus, when some brute in the distance 

 gave tongue, and instantly every cur in the place did his utmost 

 to outbark his neighbour. This infernal din lasted nearly all 

 night, and many times did we vow to thin their numbers by 

 fair means or foul in the morning. If they had only stayed 

 outside, but they entered our chamber through a door we could 

 not shut, drank our milk, and then affectionately and thankfully 

 licked our faces. This would bring forth some very strong 

 language, followed by a handy missile, which, even if it did 

 not hit the intruder, at all events was successful in making 

 one's neighbour wideawake, at which, curiously enough, he was 

 not always best pleased. The early morning was very chilly, for 

 Keren lies 4,469 feet above the sea, so we did not get up until 

 long after the very pretty Egyptian reveilles had sounded. The 

 air is remarkably taking, and is played on a dozen or more 

 trumpets and key-bugles, the men marching up and down the 

 while. After breakfast, it being too early to call upon the 

 governor, we paid a visit to the convent, the seat of the French 

 mission, which existed here long before the Egyptian sway 

 extended as far as this. Crossing some tobacco-fields on 

 which now only the short stumps of the roots remained, we 

 reached the Abyssinian huts, and soon after the courtyard of 

 the mission-house, and were presently most kindly received and 

 welcomed by the bishop, and shown over the establishment, 

 school, printing-press Amharic, the language of the Habesh 

 and workshops. I fear, however, that this mission and the 

 other near Massowah, of Protestant Swedes, have a very 

 uphill task ; not only are the Egyptians against them, but 

 the Abyssinians also put every obstacle in their way; even 

 now, after they have forced them to quit their territory, they 

 educate Abyssinian orphan children with the view of their 

 afterwards returning to their country and giving their country- 

 men the benefit of their knowledge. But lately the Abyssinians 

 have taken the very strongest measures to prevent these scholars 

 entering the country; and the French bishop, when lately on 

 a tour in Abyssinia, after being robbed of everything he pos- 

 sessed, was kept in chains for a considerable time. Some 

 time ago a Catholic mission arrived in Abyssinia with the 



