VISIT TO KEREN. 123 



place, but it was too dusk to see anything. Scarcely 

 had we crossed the river when another lion commenced, 

 and we heard others on our way home. This was 

 during our stay in the Anseba, a circumstance of nightly 

 occurrence, yet in the daytime we could scarcely ever 

 find the animals. 



For two or three days Jesse and. I were busUy occu- 

 pied in collecting and skinning. We drew lots for the 

 spoils of the rhinoceros. Jesse won them, and with 

 much labour preserved the skeleton, which is now in the 

 British Museum, and has been determined to be that of 

 the keitloa. 



On the 16th Mr. Munzinger arrived, having ridden 

 from Ailat in only three days. On the following morn- 

 ing Mockler and I rode with him to Keren, the principal 

 village of the Bogos, about sixteen miles south-west of 

 Wasentel. The road lies up the Anseba valley, the river 

 being crossed about half-way. Although we had only 

 had occasional showers, usually in the afternoon, heav}^ 

 rain frequently fell near the source of the stream in 

 ■ Hamazen, and the water was constantly very muddy, 

 and the river more or less flooded. After crossing 

 some hiUy ground, our route lay up the bed of the Dari, 

 a tributary of the Anseba, now dry, and thence over 

 undulating ground to Keren. 



This was the largest village we had seen. A consider- 

 able proportion of the houses were the usual beehive-like 

 mat huts, but there were also a number of much larger 

 dwelling-places with walls of wattle, and thatched. The 

 thatch, however, was not very good. A heavy thunder 



