210 
THROUGH SOMALILAND AND ABYSSINIA chap. 
saw them perched in hundreds among the caves and recesses of 
the small hills across the water ; but on seeing us enter the first 
village peacefully, and observing our meeting with their chief, 
they soon flocked down to look at the wonderful stranger. 
We rode through a succession of jowdri fields to the river. 
After we had allayed our thirst, our guides led us to a large 
darei , or fig-tree, standing in a small glade, and here we found 
Gabba Obolio and all the elders of the Adone seated in solemn 
conclave on the grass, to the number of about a hundred. My 
advent was a great event to these negroes, whose dull lives are 
only enlivened by Abyssinian or Am Men raids, and who live 
their otherwise quiet existence on the banks of the Webbe, 
cultivating the ground or herding cows. 
I walked through the throng to Gabba Oboho ; and shaking 
hands with him and a dozen of the nearest counsellors, and 
spreading a camel-mat in the centre of the circle, I sat down 
with Adan Yusuf, my interpreter, sending the rest of my party 
away with the animals to get fodder and cook their evening 
meal. The greeting of the negroes was very friendly ; they 
pressed round me, feeling my Elcho boots and admiring the 
leather and particularly the laces, pinching the material of my 
corduroy breeches ; and taking off my canvas shooting hat, 
which was passed round with a buzz of wonder and then 
politely handed back to me. Gabba Oboho could not conceal 
his curiosity, and asked me why my arm was brown outside 
and white under the sleeve ; so I gave a lecture on the effect 
of the sun on the European skin to an open-mouthed and admir- 
ing audience. 
Gabba, now managing to secure silence, in the course of a 
long oration said he was glad an Englishman had come ; that 
he and all the headmen wished to sign a paper with my 
Government, that all the inhabitants of the Webbe were 
“ subjects ” of the English, who, they had often heard, were 
good people ; and he now wished to know at once whether I 
had brought the paper, so that he might make his mark. He 
stopped, and the expectant crowd waited for my reply. I 
explained that I had not been ordered to visit the country 
and had brought no paper ; that I had come to look for wild 
animals and to see the great river, the Webbe, of which during 
some years I had heard so much ; that the English wished to 
be friends with all people, and the officer who signed papers 
lived at Aden, more than twenty days’ journey, as they knew, 
