282 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Dec. 



trunk and foot, baking them in a hole in which a big fire had been 

 made, after the most approved African recipe. The trunk was pro- 

 nounced excellent though rather hard ; as to the foot we were none 

 of us inclined to endorse Sir Samuel Baker's high approval of it. 

 The whole of the elephant's flesh, indeed, I may say everything 

 from the carcass soft enough to be eaten, was carried off for food 

 by the natives. The skin they also took to make into shields. Mr. 

 Jesse and I remained at Kokai some days : the fauna was very rich 

 and interesting. Amongst the birds were a parrot, Pceocephalus 

 Meyeri, and 3 kinds of Rollers — Coracias Abyssinica, like the Indian 

 bird in plumage, but with elongated tail feathers ; C. Levaillantii which 

 is more nearly allied to the European roller ; and Eurystomus afer 

 which I had not previously met with. I also obtained here a species 

 of Oxylophus, (probably O. afer,) Chizaerhis zonura and many other 

 species. 



On the 13th July, we marched from Kokai to Bedjuk in the 

 Anseba valley. The road lay over a low pass, Mas'halit, about 4,800 

 feet above the sea, separating the feeders of the Lebka from the 

 Anseba valley. Bedjuk, the principal village of the tribe of that 

 name, was by far the largest place we had seen since leaving Massowa. 

 Here also we came upon the first cultivation we had met with. The 

 Habab tribes cultivate small tracts of land in Samhar and other parts 

 of the lowlands after the winter rains, but they possess no land in the 

 highlands. The cultivation around Bedjuk consisted entirely of 

 jawari or millet (Holcus), apparently the only grain grown at this 

 season in this part of the country. 



The Anseba valley near Bedjuk is an undulating tract 8 or 10 miles 

 broad, but becoming narrow above and below. Except a considerable 

 area of cultivated ground near Bedjuk and smaller tracts near some 

 other villages, all is covered with thin bush jungle, except in the 

 ravines, which contain thick scrub. On the bank of the river there is 

 a belt of high trees with dense underwood, so thick in many places 

 that it is difficult to creep through it except by following the narrow 

 paths made by elephants and rhinoceroses. There was a considerable 

 quantity of water in the river, and frequently it was so much flooded 

 as to be impassable. 



With the exception of one visit to Keren, the principal village of 



