68 
MEMOIR OF BRUCE. 
more, near the dangerous ford which he had formerly 
passed with so much difficulty with the king’s army. 
On the hank they found some of the Galla tribe, 
whose chief was called Jumper, to whom Bruce 
paid his respects. He found him at his toilette, 
after the fashion of his country; that is, he was 
rubbing melted tallow on his arms and body, and 
plaiting his hair with the large and small entrails 
of an ox, some of which hung like a necklace 
round his throat. Our traveller made his visit as 
short as possible, glad to escape the perfume of filth 
and carrion, which was far from being agreeable. 
These savages offered no injury to the strangers, 
hut they paid the utmost deference to Basil’s horse, 
which the owner told Bruce, when he made him a 
present of it, would be a sufficient passport through 
the country. 
Farther into the interior, and beyond the Assar 
river, the soil was extremely rich, and bore wild 
oats of a prodigious height and size. The trees 
were covered with flow r ers of every colour, and 
crowded with birds of uncouth forms, all of them 
richly adorned with every variety of plumage ; few 
of them, however, were musical, their notes re- 
sembling the squalling noise of the jay. 
It was on the 2d of November that Bruce, for 
the first time, obtained a distinct view of the moun- 
tains of Geesh, the long wished-for object of his 
most dangerous and troublesome journey ; and being 
now within sight of his goal, he proceeded with 
redoubled alacrity. The Nile was before him, and 
