THROUGH SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA TO THE SUDAN. 789 



and sliiui) sounding'. Their ti<>iiros mv l)r()iid :ind luuscular; tiicv have 

 diti'ei'eiit kinds of tattooing- on the chest and on the ])ack, hut tiieir 

 most interesting- tattooing- is on the forehead, in which they cut verti- 

 cal slits, Avhich gives them the aspect of wearing a horn. Tliey often 

 wear capes made out of grass, like those of the Gimirra, and also 

 capes made of cut hark, and, to my great astonishment, I also found 

 clothes woven of hark, simihir to those worn in Uganda and Usoga. I 

 never saw a woman, either in Shckho or in Hineslio, prol)al)ly l^ecause 

 they are hrst placed in safety as the object most desired by the Ab3^s- 

 sinians. I had to he very much on my guard h(n-e, as the Shekho 

 were always lurking- in the bushes, trying to cut otf my men and kill 

 them singly. Once they speared one of my horses while grazing, 

 nevertheless I succeeded in avoiding any actual lighting. 



In Shekho I found a large river running w^estward. I believed 

 this river to be the Gelo, discovered near its junction with the Ajul)a 

 )>y the Italian Bottego, an opinion which Avas confirmed afterwards. 

 Traveling- became very difficult here. The western slopes of the South 

 Ethiopian plateau are cut b}" many deep ravines; the roads therefore 

 were narrow and bad, and many of my mules became wounded and 

 useless. As it flows westward, the river Gelo is lined on both sides 

 l)y the densest forest. I could march only about 2 or o miles each 

 day, and to cover that distance the men had mostly to cut the w^ay 

 with axes and bush knives from morning till noon, after which the 

 caravan was able to proceed. The inhabitants of this forest are the 

 Mashango, who were very seldom seen, but we often found large 

 traps made for hippos and water bucks, and loops made of creepi^-s 

 for monkeys and other small animals going to the Avater. Already in 

 Gimirra I had seen, far away to the west, a long mountain chain run- 

 ning from north to south, called by the Galla "Gurafarda" — that is to 

 sa}^, "horse's ear," from a sharp double peak in the middle. It took 

 more than three weeks from Gimirra to reach the point where the 

 Gelo pierces the mountains, forming- magnificent cascades. Some 

 days after passing this gap, I saw from a bamboo-covered hill in the 

 west a boundless bush and grass-covered dead flat, the plain of the 

 Sobat and the beginning of the Sudan. Only a few granite hills arc 

 scattered over it. Ascending one of these, I saw, far away, a large 

 lake — Lake Tata — through Avhich the river (tcIo runs. Here we 

 found the first villages of the Jambo, or Anyuak, who were the first 

 true Nilotic people I met. They are a division of the great Shilluk 

 tribe, which is spread over the whole eastern Sudan, and extends 

 southward to the east shore of Lake Victoria. The few samples I 

 obtained of their language show that it is scarcely distinguishable 

 from that of the Kavirondo peoples on the east shores of Lake \'ictoria, 

 whose country I passed on my first African journey in iHVi, 



