364 



CHAPTER XXV. 



No prospect of recovery. — Slaughter of the goat. — Manufacture of 

 skin-bags. — The process. — Farming. — The bark employed. — 

 Morocco leather. — Carcase butchers. — Process of cutting up meat. 



August 2\st. — The termination of the fast of Felsat 

 was hailed with considerable pleasure by the very 

 best of Christians in Shoa, and this happened on 

 the last day of the interval which dates this 

 chapter, for increasing want of space compels me 

 to relinquish the usual diurnal account. As it 

 happened, nothing of importance occurred, except 

 only that I began to find myself gradually getting 

 weaker and weaker, and the symptoms of my illness 

 increasing in violence upon every fresh attack. 

 I attributed this, in a great measure, to the wet 

 season, which was now most decidedly set in, and 

 for the last three or four days especially it had 

 rained without intermission. It was a cheerless 

 time, the moist foggy state of the atmosphere, and 

 the muddy condition of the road, quite prevented 

 me from taking my usual walks, and looking at 

 the dripping state of my thatched roof, or listening 

 to the pattering of the large rain drops against my 

 parchment window, was all the amusement I had 



