782 THROUGH SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA TO THE RTTDAlSr. 



East Africa, finishing near Mount Gurui. The mountains ])ord8ring' 

 the valley at this northern part consist mostly of obsidian and other 

 volcanic vitrified rocks. Some smaller rocky hills standing out in 

 some parts of the valley also consist of the same material. The river 

 Suksuk joins Lake Zwa] with the more southerly situated Hora 

 Shale. Lake Hora, as it was called by the late Captain \Vellb3', is 

 wrong-, for Hora means " Salt Lake;" Hora Shale, "Pelican Salt 

 Lake." South of it is the Hora Lannna, the water of which, as we 

 were told b}^ the Galla, has the same salty properties as has the Hora 

 Shale. There is onl}^ a small neck of land between these two lakes, 

 in the middle of which lies Mount Fike, a volcano of the t3^pical 

 horseshoe form, with its opening turned northward. Southeast of 

 Lake Zwa] lies the Alutu, a mountain which consists in its upper 

 parts almost entirely of a greenish- black obsidian-like rock. 1 made 

 ^he ascent and saw from the top, east of Hora Shale, a lake previously 

 unknown, Avhich was called by the Arussi who accompanied us Hora 

 Langanna, or Hora Korre. This is the most beautiful of the lakes, 

 as the southern slopes of Mount Alutu fall in picturesque contour into 

 the water. There is a connection between this lake and Hora Shale, 

 which is called Daka by the Arussi. 1 reached the Hora Korre on the 

 next day. Its waters are only slightly brackish. South of Hora 

 Korre J found the most magnificent euphorbia forests I ever saw in 

 Africa. Near a great market place called Alelu 1 marched for about 

 five or six hours, hardU" seeing an}- other tree. Arriving at Lake 

 Abassi (which, although seen bv d'Aragon, is not to be found on any 

 recent map, probably because it was considered identical with the 

 Lake Lamina of Captain Wellby) my caravan and that of Baron 

 Erhmger were stopped by the Balaml)aras Abite, a subchief of the 

 Dejasmach Balcha, the Abyssinian governor of these countries. In 

 spite of the permission given in the Emperor Menelik's letters, we 

 had to send messengers ahead to the dejasmach in order to ask his per- 

 uussion to come to his residence. It took them five days to return. 

 1 used that time in making investigations of the hot springs which 

 are situated at the eastern corner of the lake. Some of these had 

 formed hills of tuti' 10 feet high. The substance is about the same as 

 that of the Karlsbad-Sprudelstein. The hot water bubbles out at the 

 sunniiit. 



Here we entered a new ethnological region, that of the Sidamo peo- 

 ple. The Sidamo form one group with the Jamjam, Walamo, Borodda, 

 Kosha, and Malo people on the banks of the Omo River. This is a 

 group of a prol)ably very remote origin, l)ut more or less mixed with 

 conquering Galla tribes. Ascending from the north we had to pass 

 wonderful forests covering the western slopes of a high mountain 

 chain, till we reached the plateau covered with alpine marsh and bam- 

 boo forest on which Abera, the "Katania," or residence of the Dejas- 



