128 SOMETHING COMFORTABLE. 



with greater speed than it used to be, as I assisted 

 at its erection myself, not wishing any more 

 invitations to leave the Kafilah on pretext of 

 superior accommodations. On the occasion of the 

 British Mission going up to Shoa, this was the 

 place where the murder of the two sergeants of 

 the Regiment of Queen's infantry and a Portu- 

 guese cook was effected by the natives, insufficient 

 watch being kept by the party during the night. 

 I heard twenty different relations of this atrocious 

 act ; the perpetrators of it being well-known to the 

 people of Tajourah, and belonged to the Debenee 

 tribe. In the course of the day, I took an oppor- 

 tunity of mentioning to Ohmed Mahomed my 

 rencontre with Garahmee ; and he told me, that if 

 I left the Kafilah and accompanied the Bedouins, 

 I should always be exposed to the same attempts ; 

 "fori have my enemies," he added, u and they will 

 (drawing his hand across his throat) kill you, 

 merely because you are my friend." The Ras felt 

 that his boxeish at the end of the journey was in 

 jeopardy, so instead of going away to his own 

 house of salt bags, which had been constructed 

 for him, he placed his mat alongside of mine, 

 remained in my hut nearly all day, and slept 

 there during the night. We had a long conversa- 

 tion upon the division of the country we were 

 passing through among the Dankalli tribes, and I 

 found that the Muditu and the Assobah tribes laid 

 claim to equal portions of the salt lake, with 



