BRUCE. 
85 
display of his powers in riding and shooting, he 
removed the contempt with which the Galla 
chief had at first viewed him, and they parted on 
good terms. He was accommodated with two 
necessary companions ; one of which was Woldo, 
an inferior chief, whose character was marked by 
all the savage eccentricities of his nation ; the 
other was FasiPs horse, given, not for the purpose 
of riding, but of driving before him. This horse, 
it seems, was viewed with such profound respect 
by every Galla, that, preceded by him, they were 
in as perfect security as if Fasil himself had ac- 
companied them. They soon accordingly met a 
chief, with a party under his command, who 
scarcely spoke to Bruce, but addressed the horse 
in terms of the deepest veneration, and held with 
him a conversation of some length, in which he 
lamented his fate in being delivered to a white 
man, who could never entertain an adequate sense 
of his worth. Our traveller, therefore, proceeded 
in full confidence with Woldo and the horse, 
though he found great difficulty in restraining the 
rapacious disposition of the former. At length he 
reached the district of Sacala, a green and fertile 
region, in which these long sought for fountains 
were to be found. His emotions were first raised 
to the highest pitch, by arriving at a portion of 
the* infant stream so narrow that it could be step- 
ped over, which he did in triumph fifty or sixty 
