SKETCHES IN THE SOUDAN 51 



wish to establish itself there, and had an audience of the king, 

 who, when told its object, put the somewhat puzzling question 

 to the spokesman, " Why do you Catholic missionaries come 

 to my kingdom, one of the oldest Catholic countries on earth ? 

 You tell me that you travelled through Egypt to get here ; did 

 it not strike you that it would have been much more suitable 

 for you to have remained there to convert the Mohamme- 

 dans, than to have come here to us who have the same 

 faith as you?" 



The mission on arrival of the Egyptians was allowed to 

 remain, and is now the centre of the old Keren, the Abys- 

 sinian quarter of Senheit. The children, boys and girls, who 

 all looked very happy, are taught the Bible and a variety of 

 trades, while the Amharic translations of the Scriptures are 

 sent into Abyssinia for distribution. The five or six members 

 of the mission were kindness itself to us, and presented us 

 several times with baskets of fresh vegetables, a valuable pre- 

 sent which we most thoroughly appreciated. Visits to the 

 governor and to the commandant followed, which commenced 

 with coffee and cigarettes, and after numerous questions as to 

 our late and future movements, came to an end with cigarettes 

 and coffee. These visits became very monotonous, for directly 

 after we had been viewed into our den all the officials came one 

 after another in quest of news, tobacco, and coffee and, me- 

 thinks, I also heard whisky mentioned, but there my ears must 

 have deceived me. 



Then we take a walk to the public square, where again the 

 "fair" Abyssinian bread vendors are sitting about with their 

 wares on trays in front of them. And very pretty these young 

 girls are in fact, so much so that Gr. soon lost his heart alto- 

 gether, and now at all hours of the day buys bread, a little at a 

 time, but often ; and well can I understand it, for their figures 

 and carriage are perfect ; they always seem happy, always 

 joking and laughing, displaying their dazzling white teeth. 

 The arrangement of their hair is a work of art, and must 

 entail an immense amount of trouble ; it is divided into 

 innumerable small narrow plaits, which, extending from the 

 forehead to the back of the neck, are neatly arranged side by 

 side and then fixed there. The rich brown skin is set off by a 

 blue bead necklace, or bracelets or anklets, or by all three, and 



