ABYSSINIAN ZAREBA 
131 
before, when they wished to annex this territory. The 
zareha had been built of very high trunks of thorn-trees, 
stuck firmly in the ground close together. Within the 
zareba were a number of beautifully-built huts — one might 
almost call them houses, some were so large. They were 
all built of bent thorn branches tied together. These huts 
were of various shapes and sizes, according to the rank of 
the occupants. The headman of the embassy had a magni- 
ficent hut, large and roomy, and supported in the middle 
by huge tree-trunks. The second in command of the 
expedition had a smaller one, and so on, down to the 
ordinary huts of the camel-men. All v/ere carefully thatched 
with grass. There still remained the seats erected outside 
the huts, where the men sat in the morning and in the 
afternoon out of the sun. Everything looked as if built 
but yesterday, except that the roof of the headman s hut 
had fallen in. 
A. large caravan of camels, sheep, goats, cows and calves, 
came to these wells to drink.* The wealth of animals 
possessed by the Somalis is astonishing. No wonder the 
Abyssinians find it a paying game to come down upon them 
and loot them. One of my men brought me a chameleon 
fixed firmly at the end of a stick, with its claws and tail 
clasped round it. All the men went in great fear of it, and 
were much surprised when I handled it. As I had no 
spirits to bottle it in, I was obliged, in order to skin it, to 
hit it on the head, when from a bronze colour it turned 
perfectly green, as well it might, poor beast ! The skin of 
a lizard sticks with remarkable firmness at the back of the 
neck and on the head itself, and you are indeed a good 
skinner if you can take off the whole skin without tear- 
ing it. 
In the afternoon I went out bird-collecting, as there was 
no big game about to ‘ mek blued ’ (kill). Early next 
morning we at last left the Sule Eiver bed. 
Jiggiga, a place situated on a large plain, to which I was 
bound, was now reported five days’ march off. During the 
9—2 
