112 FERSOy.ll KARRJTIFE. 



generally used, not only througliout the nomade Mahom- 

 medan tribes of the Habab, but also amongst the agri- 

 cultural Christian population of the Anseba valley and 

 Bogos. Even when thatched huts are used, as at Keren, 

 the hemispherical mat dome is placed inside. 



In the centre o,f the circle were two or three isolated 

 huts, said to be used, pne for marriages, and another for 

 the sick. I doubt if these be really their use. The 

 inhabitants were much like Shohos, but a finer race. The 

 men had enormous masses of frizzled hair, in which were 

 stuck the usual two or three long skewers of wood or 

 horn. Like all the people in Northern Abyssinia, they 

 wore large straight swords, of German manufacture, 

 instead of the little sickle-like weapons of the Shohos, or 

 the longer curved scimitars of the Tigreans and other 

 Abyssinians. 



Uncouth as they appeared, these people were very 

 civil, and their chief went on with us for some distance 

 to point out the roa-d. As we came out upon the open 

 desert we saw many large gazelles {G. Scemmeringii) in 

 the moonlight ; but they would not allow us to approach 

 sufficiently close to shoot. 



We reached Ain in the morning. A small stream, fed 

 by a spring, runs between thick green bushes and reeds 

 in the bed of the Lebka torrent. Here we halted for 

 a day. The slope of the coast plain must be considerable, 

 since at Ain, about fifteen miles from the sea, the eleva- 

 tion by aneroid is about 1,200 feet. All the hills around 

 are schistose and gneissic rocks, as are indeed all between 

 Ailat and Ain. The general strike is still north and 



