68 THE NEGOOS TAKES 



of Shoa, and Capt. Harris, the representative of 

 Her Majesty at that court. 



During the three succeeding days, numerous 

 hearers brought to Angolahlah the stores from 

 Farree, and by orders of the Negoos all were 

 deposited in the palace-yard, nor was one allowed 

 to be touched or seen by our Ambassador. All 

 this time I amused myself as well as I could, read- 

 ing some volumes upon African discoveries ; some- 

 times taking a short walk along a narrow flat 

 through which a little meandering stream flowed 

 directly to the Lomee Wans, or Lemon river, which 

 has cut a deep and wide ravine in front of the 

 village of Tcherkos, celebrated as being the scene 

 of a dreadful massacre of Christians by a rebel 

 governor of Shoa, named Matoka, some few years 

 before. This ravine extends from the south, in a 

 direction towards the north-east, and joins, or is 

 continuous with that to the west of the town of 

 Debra Berhan, where the Barissa, in its course to 

 the Jumma, forms, in the rainy season, some mag- 

 nificent waterfalls. 



Some idea of the depth to which even these early 

 tributaries of the Abi (Bruce's Nile) have denuded 

 their channels may be derived from the fact, that 

 the little stream, along the banks of which I used 

 to direct my steps, after a course of scarcely two 

 miles, leaps down, in one unbroken fall, seven hun- 

 dred feet to join the rivulet below, for the Lomee 



