502: 
DIXAN. 
messengers, and, as these people might have come merely for the 
purpose of getting the usual recompense of a piece of cloth, I did 
not choose to comply with the custom any longer. 
" Heavy rain attended by thunder came on at noon, and the 
renlainder of the day was so dark and dismal, that in our hut we 
could not see to do any thing without a candle. Our whole party 
was unwell with violent colds. We killed a vulture, which upon 
examination, we pronounced " to be a bird of passage," since we 
could not discover any of that powder which, Bruce says, the hill 
birds of this country are provided with, and -which, it is to be 
observed, all the birds that we have hitherto killed have been 
without. 
" August 1^. — We passed the morning in anxious expectation 
of the arrival of the mules, and in preparing our fire-arms, kc. for 
the journey. About twelve o,clock intelligence was.brought us of 
their approach, and soon after, the Baliarnegash introduced Hadjee 
Hamed, and Negada Moosa ; they brought each of them a letter 
from the Ras, in Arabic, mentioning the former as a man in his 
confidence, to whom we were to make known all our wishes, and 
the latter as appointed to take charge of our persons and baggage. 
They seemed to be men of more respectability than any we had 
hitherto met with since we left Mocha, and their retinue and attend- 
ants were numerous, and decently clad. They brought us informa- 
tion that the Ras and his family were well ; that he was himself 
exceedingly anxious to see us, and had given orders to bring us up? 
without delay, by the nearest road, to his presence ; that all things 
were prepared for us by his special orders in the villages through 
which we had to pass ; and that if any man should dare to molest 
