HALAI. 49 



Sowera, uninhabited except in the rains, when Shohos 

 drive their cattle here for pasture. Pieces of Greek 

 ruins lie scattered about here and there. We could, 

 however, only find fragments of inscriptions, containing 

 two or three letters at the most. There was no such 

 view now over the deep valleys as when I ascended the 

 sides of the same plateau from Undul, All below our 

 feet was a dense sea of mist, from above which the 

 higher hills rose like islands and promontories. The 

 spring rains which fertilize the coast of the Ked Sea still 

 prevailed in the lowlands ; they however do not extend 

 to the Abyssinian plateau, and the rains of summer are 

 similarly confined to the highlands. 



In the evening we saw several hysenas, but I could 

 not succeed in shooting any. The next day we went to 

 Halai, over a series of low ridges and valleys, with a few 

 bad descents. It was a rather long march, and we did 

 not ourselves arrive before nightfall, having delayed 

 much by the way. At one village on the road we found 

 a Catholic church, with a number of the highly-coloured 

 pictures of saints and of Biblical incidents so common in 

 smaller churches in France and Italy, but also with some 

 of the mural paintings generally found in Abyssinian 

 churches, St. George and the Dragon being conspicuous 

 as usual. ■"■ 



Halai is a considerable village, buUt of flat-roofed 

 houses, like all others in this part of Tigr^, and inhabited 

 by Christians. There is a good-sized square church. 



' It is scarcely necessary to remind the reader that St. George is as muc 

 the patron saint of Abyssinia as he is ef England. 



