54 SPORT AND TRAVEL PAPERS 



or two, his rider had to exchange the saddle for the hard 

 ground ; but not satisfied with that feat, Mr. Mule would in 

 a few more kicks disembarrass himself of his saddle also by 

 slipping it over his head, without undoing the girths, and then 

 quietly walk to a bush as if looking for applause, and com- 

 mence feeding. "Pride of Keren" was a most accomplished 

 mule, and would have been a valuable addition to a circus 

 while in his kicking mood. In good temper he did his 

 work well, would eat anything, but when his liver was out 

 of order, or something else had gone wrong, he had a will of 

 his own, to which his rider had to bow even down to the very 

 ground. 



One day we received an invitation to an Abyssinian wedding, 

 so in the evening, about nine, we followed our conductors to the 

 Christian Keren, where the marriage festivities were then taking 

 place. Soon after leaving our mansion the marriage bells, or 

 rather tom-toms, became audible, and as we drew nearer other 

 musical, if not melodious, sounds began to mingle with them. 

 Entering a large sereeba and passing one or two huts, now dark 

 and deserted, we soon found ourselves in the centre of, ap- 

 parently, a very happy, certainly a very noisy crowd. In front 

 of a very large hut, or " dass " closed all round, the abode of the 

 bride, were the musicians seated on the ground, and around 

 these, standing or walking about, a large number of guests 

 assembled to do honour to the bride and sing the praises of the 

 bridegroom. Outside the hut all belonged to the male sex, but 

 inside the bride sat in state, surrounded by an admiring circle of 

 female friends only. The scene certainly was most picturesque. 

 The musicians formed the inner circle, sitting round an oblong 

 space kept clear of the crowd, upon which only two or three boys 

 were allowed, whose duty it was to tend the few oil lamps which 

 only partially lit up the dark faces and the white garments of 

 the men around. The musicians, all old men, certainly worked 

 hard, as if their lives depended upon making as much noise as 

 possible. Some of them plied tom-toms without intermission, 

 while others beat time on a larger drum suspended from the neck 

 by a cord; a few, again, made "music" on a long wooden 

 flute-like instrument with a reed mouthpiece and a bell mouth, 

 the resulting humming sounds mingling in delightful " harmony " 

 with others produced by a string instrument like a guitar played 



