174 THROUGH SOMALILAND AND ABYSSINIA CHAP. 
were laid out in front of us all amid a buzz of admiration from 
the courtiers. I thanked Makunan for them, and said that it 
would crown his kindness if he would give me a letter to his 
frontier generals providing for my safe passage through districts 
occupied by his soldiers, I had the greatest difficulty in getting 
this out of him, as his suspicious officers strongly advised him 
to put nothing on paper. By insisting, however, I at last got 
the letter. On 21st March I called on Wandi, chief of police, 
as he had sent a message to say he was sick and unable to come 
to me. I found him in bed with fever. 
I then had the presentation mule dressed in its state satin 
embroidery, and, myself clothed in a canvas shooting hat, khaka 
drill coat, with a high starched collar, drill breeches, and brown 
leather Elcho boots, I sat on the mule and went to meet the 
Ras, who was leaving for Jarso on an inspection. Riding half 
a mile down a path, I came on the usual procession of soldiers, 
and found the Ras at its head. We dismounted and bade each 
other a final good-bye, the Ras going off to Jarso and I returning 
to Harar. 
In the evening I rode out with the Italians to Jebel Hakim, 
and visited some wonderful caves in the limestone rock, which 
have their openings in the top of the hill. They are formed by 
rain-water collecting in natural pans on the open grass-covered 
summit and sinking into the hill, eroding the limestone, and 
producing immense well-like chasms. This water finds its way 
to the surface round the base of the hill, where good water is 
always to be found at every mile or so. This hill overlooks 
Harar from a distance of about a mile. 
On 22nd March I called on an Armenian and his wife 
employed by the Ras; and after saying good-bye to the Euro- 
peans I took the road to Feyambiro, with my servants and a 
dozen soldiers who had been told off as porters to carry my 
baggage. Felter and Guigniony came some distance to see me 
off, the latter riding a beautiful little Abyssinian horse. These 
horses are very pretty and graceful, but restive; in shape they 
resemble the Arab, and are about fourteen hands high. 
My wounded servant had to ride ona mule. Count Salim- 
beni had, however, by careful treatment, stopped the bleeding 
and put him in a fair way to recover, though he was still very 
weak. 
I reached Feyambiro on the same day, being entertained 
by the Shim, Basha-Gisdo ; and while encamped here I had a 
