74 PERSONAL NARRATIVE. 



proportion of the money. The women apparently were 

 endeavouring to excite the men to resistance. Unfor- 

 tunately, in this, as in many other cases, want of know- 

 ledge of the language and of a good interpreter made it 

 impossible to obtain accurate information. 



The narrowness of the path across the passes rendered 

 progress very slow upon these marches, as the mules eould, 

 of course, oiily go singly, and one animal falling, or halted 

 for the adjustment of its load, stopped the whole convoy. 

 The dragoons, with their long train of commissariat 

 supplies, had been in the rear since Adigrat, but by 

 forced marches they also had come up, and so much 

 delay was caused by the great length of the united 

 convoys that our party, which had reached Atala from 

 Meshek early in the day, went on over the next spur to 

 Aiba in the afternoon. The Aiba valley is higher than 

 that of Atala, but otherwise precisely similar, an open 

 grassy flat at the bottom with a stream rimning through 

 it, and hills bare of trees at each side. 



The Atala and Aiba valleys recall most forcibly some 

 of the scenery in the higher parts of the western gh4ts 

 near Poonah, in the Bombay Presidency; and the hill 

 forts of Alaji and Daga, although grander and higher, 

 yet resemble to a certain extent the old Maratta strong- 

 holds of Singhur, Rajghur, Torna, &c. In each case the 

 same geological peculiarity, the occurrence of beds of 

 volcanic rock, which weather with a vertical scarp, has 

 been employed for purposes of defence, both by Hindoos 

 and Abyssinians. 



At the bottom of the Aiba vaUey, as at Atala, the 



