84 -T TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 
men or beafts near it with great force and fiercenefs, fo that 
I was obliged to ftab it with a bayonet. It was of a dirty 
white; only the head and upper part of its wings were of 
a light brown. 
On the 22d, at eight in the morning, we left our ftation on 
the top of Taranta, and foon after began to defcend on the 
fide of Tigré through a road the moft broken and uneven. 
that ever I had feen, always excepting the afcent of Taran- 
ta. After this we began to mount a {mall hill, from which, 
we had a diftinct view of Dixan,. 
Tur cedar-trees, fo tall and beautiful on the top of Taran= 
ta, and alfo on the eaft fide, were greatly degenerated when. 
we came to the weft, and moftly turned into fmall fhrubs, - 
and fcraggy bufhes. We pitched our tent near fome marfhy ~ 
ground for the fake of water, at three quarters paft ten, but 
it was very bad, having been, for feveral weeks, ftagnant. 
We faw here. the people bufy at their wheat harvett’; 
others, who. had finifhed theirs, were treading -it out 
with cows or bullocks. They make no ufe of their ftraw ; 
fometimes they burn it, and fometimes leave it on the {pot 
to rot. 
We fet out from. this about ten minutes after three, de= 
fcending gently through a better road than we had hitherto. 
feen. At half paft four inthe evening, on the z2d of No- 
vember, we came to Dixan. Halai was the firft village, fo. 
is this the firft town in, Abyflinia, on the fide of Taranta,. 
Dixan is built on the top: of a hill, perfectly in form of a. 
fugar loaf; a deep valley furrounds it everywhere like a 
, trench > 
\ 
