106 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 
each, and one piece of white, value one pataka. Our com- 
panions, rather than ftay behind, made the beft bargain 
they could ; and we all decamped, and fet forward together. 
{was furprifed to fee, at the fmall village Zarow, feveral 
families as black as perfe&t negroes, only they were not 
woolly-headed, and had prominent features. I afked if they 
defcended from flaves, or fons of flaves? They faid, No; 
their particular families of that and the neighbouring vil- 
lage Sebow, were of that colour from time immemorial ; 
and that this did not change, though either the father or 
mother were of another colour. 
On the ift of December we departed from Balezat, and 
afcended a fteep mountain upon which ftands the village _ 
Noguet, which we paffed about half an hour after. On the 
top of the hill were a few fields of teff. Harveft was then: 
ended, and they were treading out the teff with oxen. Ha- 
ving pafledanother very rugged mountain, we defcended and. 
encamped by the fide of a {mall river, called Mai Kol-quall,, 
from a number of thefe trees growing about it. This place 
is named the Kella, or Caftle, becaufe, nearly at equal dif 
tances, the mountains on each fide run for a confiderable 
extent, flraight and even, in fhape like a wall, with gapes 
at certain diftances, refembling embrafures and baftions. 
This rock is otherwife called Damo, anciently the prifon: 
of the collateral heirs-male of the toyal family. 
THE river Kol-quall rifes in the sastateraaiae of Tigre, and,. 
after a courfe nearly N. W. falls into the Mareb. It was at — 
Kella we faw, for the firft time, the ‘roofs. of the houfes 
made in form of cones ; a fure proof that the tropical rains. 
grow more violent as. they proceed weftward, 
A | AsBoutT 
