372 THROUGH SOMALILAND AND ABYSSINIA 
tlie mule caravan over the Hawash desert journey by taking a proportion 
of the loads and carrying extra water. 
Pack-Saddles . — The mule pack-saddles to be got in Abyssinia are made 
of sheep-skins on a wooden fork like an inverted Y, very trashy affairs, 
costing from 2 to 2\ dollars each. Ras Makutian has military saddles 
for his baggage mules, made of sacking stuffed with straw, a better pattern. 
Machanyas or leather ropes for fastening over the mule pack run two to 
three per dollar. 
Donkey pack-saddles are mere bits of cam el -mat or two or three sheep- 
skins lashed with rope. 
Miscellaneous . — A sheep costs from two to three dollars ; the “breads,” 
a foot in diameter, supplied daily at the halting places (by arrangement 
beforehand) for the Abyssinian followers, run fifty to the dollar ; barley, 
useful as extra food for mules, three to four bushels per dollar. 
Procedure . — It would presumably be necessary first to write from 
England to arrange for the King’s permission to enter the country, by 
communicating with the Aden authorities ; then an agent would have to 
be sent up from Zeila to purchase the necessary mules at Harar, and 
arrange for drivers, and either bring mules and drivers down to Gildessa, 
or leave them at Harar and arrange for hired donkey transport from 
Gildessa to Harar. The camels for the Hawash can be arranged for at 
Harar, and at Zeila a hired camel caravan must be waiting to take the 
expedition to Gildessa. 
We will suppose the Abyssinian official, one headman, and half the 
muleteers are arranged for by the Abyssinian authorities, the other head- 
man and the other half of the muleteers being hired direct by the agent 
sent up. The latter would be engaged for the whole trip ; but the men 
given by Ras Makunan would be stopped at the frontier post of Laga 
Hardim, and Menelik’s people would there meet the caravan. So that 
for the hired men and coast-servants permission to cross the frontier 
would probably have to be obtained beforehand. It must be remembered 
the muleteers hang together under their feudal headman and will not be 
separated. 
At Addis- Abbaba there would be one or more Europeans in the King’s 
service who would put the traveller up to the ways of the place and 
arrange about his going farther. It must be remembered, however, that 
travelling in Abyssinia is rougher and more difficult and vexatious than 
in Somaliland ; of sport, at least up to Addis- Abbaba, there is practically 
none near the road itself. There are, however, untouched hunting-grounds 
on the inland borders of Abyssinia, and in the Jimma country ; and now 
that peace is returning to the Eastern Soudan, the glorious hunting- 
grounds of the Nile tributaries, which have for seventeen years been, so 
to speak, lying fallow, will soon be again open for the big-game hunter. 
