INHABITANTS OF THE ANSEBA F ALLEY. 119 



several chiefs who had become converts to Islam. Both 

 Christianity and Mahommedanism are of a most debased 

 kind : there is neither church nor mosque, priest nor muUa ; 

 but the faith of the Mussulman is kept alive by wander- 

 ing devotees, while the Christians have only the Frank 

 missionary, who preaches to them a religion far more 

 distinct from their own, in practice if not in creed, than 

 that of the followers of the Prophet. 



With the progress of Mahommedanism the rule of 

 the Egyptians extends, and that of the Abyssinians 

 diminishes. The former do but little for the country, 

 except receive taxes ; the latter do still less, always 

 with the same important exception. Protection for life 

 or property there is but little in Habab or Samhar, 

 and none in Tigrd. 



At Kelamet we had passed the last Turkish outpost 

 The upper part of the Lebka valley and all the Anseba 

 in this part of its course belongs to Tigr^, and pays 

 tribute to the chief of Hamazen. The tribe owning the 

 part of the valley reached by us is that of Bejuk, and 

 we rode to their principal village, Wasentel, — generally 

 known, however, by the name of the tribe. We here 

 found Mockler just returned from exploring the banks of 

 the river, where he had found traces of rhinoceroses in 

 abundance. This was good news. The Abyssinian 

 rhinoceros had never been accurately determined, and 

 there was some doubt as to whether it was not a distinct 

 species from any occurring in Southern Africa. On our 

 road we had met with three or four birds of which I had 

 not specimens before, viz. Nisus niger, Lamprotornis 



