THE HURRAH KAFILAH. 249 



of very high regard; and as the language of that 

 celebrated but little known city is a dialect of the 

 Geez, similar to the Amharic, Abdoanarch was not 

 considered to be altogether a foreigner. Besides, 

 he was, as I have remarked, a Mahomcdan, and as 

 three-fourths of the inhabitants of Aliu Amba 

 professed the same belief, his appointment caused 

 great satisfaction. With him, a large kafilah of 

 his countrymen had arrived, at least, two hundred, 

 so that they made a sensible addition to the popula- 

 tion, which, at most, did not exceed three thousand 

 people. Indeed, accommodations for them could 

 not be found, and they were obliged to erect a 

 number of straw huts, on the other side of the 

 cemetery in the market-place. This new village 

 consisted of about fifty houses, all of them, merely- 

 thatched roofs, resting upon the ground, with a low 

 entrance, not three feet high, cut out in front. 



Sheik Tigh sat with me nearly all day; the 

 singularly situated and nearly unknown city of 

 Hurrah affording an inexhaustible subject of con- 

 versation. As, however, he had never visited it, 

 and I subsequently received more accurate informa- 

 tion respecting this interesting place from a native, 

 I shall not now attempt to describe it. 



August 2. — My house was situated on the western 

 face of the rock of Aliu Amba standing upon its 

 own little terrace, which was enclosed partially by a 

 thick-leaved hedge, and where this failed by a row 

 of the yellow-stalks of the high Indian corn plant. 



