LEAVE FARKEE. 49 



along the edges of their own cliffs to watch our 

 progress so far on our journey. 



We now descended a bank of about four feet 

 high into the bed of the stream, by whose denud- 

 ing agency the rocky flanks of the adjoining hills 

 had been laid bare. Trees of irregular height, and 

 of very various foliage, bordered the broad pebbly 

 channel, along which a gently rippling brook 

 meandered, its course opposed to ours as it flowed 

 to join the Hawash. Sometimes it scoured a little 

 ledge of gravel, or fell over and among high 

 boulders, the evidences of its power in the time of 

 its fullest might, during the heavy rains of July and 

 August; when its swollen volume, yellow with 

 suspended mud, rushes along its then pent-up 

 bounds, bearing before it rocks, uprooted trees, 

 and the rotting debris of jowarhee, beans, or teff, 

 from the upland fields which it has devastated in 

 its course. 



We rode for some time along the bed of the 

 stream, following its serpentine channel, until we 

 turned upon its right bank, and began to ascend a 

 long gradual slope, which having overcome, only 

 led us to a descent equally irksome, both to riders 

 and mules, from its continued inclination down- 

 wards. At its base we crossed another stream, 

 and then began to climb another height, and then 

 came again the equally tiresome descent on the 

 opposite side. And thus we proceeded for at least 

 four hours, alternate hill and stream in regular 



