78 SPORT AND TRAVEL PAPERS 



no game country ; there were too many villages, and too many 

 cultivated fields, so I decided to leave again on the return 

 journey as soon as my host would allow. 



" But here came the difficulty ; in spite of all Wasa could 

 say, the shoums had the fixed idea that I was an Egyptian 

 spy, and that therefore I ought to be forwarded on to Lula, 

 the Abyssinian king's commander-in-chief on the frontier, 

 who, they said, was then but two days away. The prospect 

 of this was, to say the least, annoying. Several consultations 

 were held between the shoums, who had spent the night in 

 the village, as to what was to be done with me, but to 

 my great relief Wasa's eloquence in defence of my harmless- 

 ness at last prevailed, and about nine we were allowed to 

 leave, accompanied by my host and four other villagers as an 

 escort, and to see me safe across the frontier. We parted 

 the best of friends, and the head shoum presented me with 

 a very handsome shield as a farewell gift. The natives are 

 Abyssinians in dress, manners, and customs ; all wear the 

 national 'kuarrie,' and appear well-to-do; they grow a good 

 deal of corn, oats, barley, and dhurra, and possess large 

 herds of goats and cows. 



" We left the village by quite a different route to that by 

 which my former guide had brought me, and for some hours 

 followed a very rough path along the saddle of a mountain 

 chain ; then came a very long descent down to the bottom 

 of a narrow valley, where under a big tree we rested, and 

 quenched our thirst from a water-hole no bigger than an 

 ordinary soup-plate. Soon after we came to more level 

 ground, and made rapid progress all through the afternoon, 

 the track always descending. Thanks to my escort being 

 well acquainted with the road, the homeward march was 

 very different to that of the two previous days. Once we 

 struck the trail of a solitary man, which considerably puzzled 

 my escort ; however, from the print of the sandal my com- 

 panions judged that the lonely wanderer belonged to a 

 friendly tribe. At sunset our party entered the neck of the 

 V-shaped plain I had previously traversed ; here shortly 

 afterwards my men wished to halt for the night, a little out 

 of the track near a water-hole. As I was very anxious to 

 reach the camp that night I persuaded them to go on, for 



