THE BRITISH RESIDENCY. 57 



of Anko. This is rather an unfinished interpreta- 

 tion, as it omits to tell us what it secured ; and 

 were it not that we had the circumstantial evidence 

 that the town stands upon the height commanding 

 the only road leading from the low countries to the 

 table land of Shoa, we should be at a loss for the 

 real reason of its very apt name, which it must be 

 allowed to be when that circumstance of situation 

 is known. 



After threading our way for at least a quarter of 

 an hour through a labyrinth of high over-hanging 

 banks, topped by ragged hedges, or grey moss- 

 covered palings of splintered fir, we at length 

 reached a large oblong or rather oval building, for 

 one continuous circuit of a wattled wall offered no 

 angles to determine sides. This was covered by an 

 ample straw roof, with far-projected eaves, and 

 having two bright red earthenware pots at the ex- 

 tremities of the crest of the roof, as a finish to the 

 whole. This was the British Residency, and gladly 

 we dismounted to meet our expected friends. 

 Turning aside the green Chinese blind, which, 

 suspended from the top of the entrance, was suffi- 

 cient to exclude the beggars, and yet admitted 

 some light into the interior, we gained admittance ; 

 and having passed through a large central apart- 

 ment, where mules, horses, and sheep were stabled, 

 I was conducted into a clay-plastered apartment, 

 about six feet by nine, between the inner and outer 

 walls of the building, where I found two gentlemen 



