280 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Dec. 



two or three isolated lints, one of which was said to be used for 

 marriages and another for the sick. The people resembled Shohos, 

 having bu.shy frizzled hair with long curls, but besides the spear, the 

 universal weapon of Abyssinia, and indeed of almost the whole of 

 Africa, the chiefs wore straight swords of European manufacture, and 

 not curved scimitars like those of the Shohos and Danakils. 



The head sheikh, a most truculent looking old ruffian, but very 

 civil nevertheless, went on with us for some distance, and we com- 

 menced our night march across the desert. It was a bright moonlight 

 night and we met with large herds of Gazella Soemmering ii. We 

 rested for a few hours after midnight and, starting again at daybreak, 

 reached Ain about 8 o'olock. 



There we halted for a day and then marched up the Lebka valley. 

 The road, like the path from Koomeylee to Senafe, and all the passes 

 leading to the Ethiopian highlands, is the bed of a torrent, and the 

 ascent in the Lebka is even more gradual than from Koomeylee. In 

 a march of 20 miles we only ascended about 1,000 feet, and the 

 greater portion of this ascent appeared to be at a few narrow rocky 

 gorges. The hills at the sides of the pass are very barren, and the 

 scenery nowhere so grand as in the magnificent gorge of Sooroo be- 

 tween Koomeylee and Senafe. Two marches of about 20 to 25 miles 

 each, led us up this valley, the first to Mohabar, the second past 

 Kelamet, a small village of the Az Temeriam tribe, to Kokai. Here 

 we almost suddenly — certainly within a distance of 5 or 6 miles — 

 passed from a perfectly desert region into hills covered with grass and 

 green bushes, and rich valleys with fine trees, amongst which Adansonia 

 and the Kolqual, that magnificent JEuphorbiacious plant which forms 

 so conspicuous an element in Abyssinian scenery, were abundant. 

 This change took place at about 3,500 feet, Kokai being about 4,000. 

 We had passed suddenly into the region of the Abyssinian rains. 



At Kokai we found a large encampment of the Az Temeriam with 

 an immense herd of camels. These people and all others of the 

 Habab and Shoho tribes, live a curious nomade life. During the 

 cold weather, from November till April or May, they inhabit the 

 lowlands near the Red Sea, which, at that time, in consequence of 

 the winter rain, afford pasturage for their animals. When grass and 

 water fail in Samhar, as the tract along the sea is called, these people 



