280 
CHELICUT. 
The town of Soc5ta lies about ten miles from the Tacazze, and 
Mr. Pearce estimated it to be larger, and to contain a greater 
population than Antalo : these towns are distant from each 
other about six days journey. The treatment which Mr. Pearce 
experienced in the former place was altogether satisfactory, but 
he felt himself, to secure the continuance of it, under the neces- 
sity of concealing from the deputy of Ras Aylo his quarrel with 
the Ras. 
Soon after leaving Socota, Mr. Pearce arrived in the district of 
Waag, commanded by a chief dependent on the Ras, called 
Shum Ayto Confu, and thence, leaving Bora and Salowa on his 
right, he persisted in his course for three days northward, along 
the banks of the Tacazze, through Gualiu, the country of the 
Agows, until he came within thirty miles of Maisada, a town 
which I shall elsewhere have occasion to describe in the account 
of a journey which I subsequently made to the Tacazze. During 
the line of his march, Mr. Pearce had not met with any river of 
consequence running into the Tacazze, though he had crossed, 
particularly about Mnkkine, a great number of small streams 
and rivulets. 
It is a singular fact, that there exists among the Agows a 
peculiar prejudice against furnishing water to a stranger^ so 
that, when Mr. Pearce occasionally visited their huts, he found 
the occupiers always ready to supply him with milk and bread, 
but never with the first-mentioned essential necessary. As this 
did not appear to be difficult to procure in the country, the aversion 
from bestowing it may possibly arise from some ancient supersti- 
tion or veneration of the waters, connected with the history of the 
