AFRICAN EXPLORERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 99 
was cut away was left intact, and was fastened to the 
corresponding part by little wooden skewers serving as 
pins. Whether they put anything between the skin 
and the wounded flesh I do not know, but they soon 
covered the wound with mud. They then forced the 
animal to rise, and drove it on before them, to furnish 
them, no doubt, with another meal when they should 
join their companions in the evening.” 
From Tigre, Bruce passed into the province of Sire, 
which derives its name from its capital, a town 
considerably larger than 
Axum, but constantly a 
prey to putrid fevers. 
Near it flows the Takazze, 
the ancient Siris, with its 
poisonous waters bordered 
by majestic trees. 
In the province of 
Samen, situated amongst 
the unhealthy and broiling 
Waldubba Mountains, and 
where many monks had 
retired to pray and do 
penance, Bruce stayed only 
long enough to rest his 
beasts of burden, for the 
country was not only 
haunted by lions and 
hyaenas, and infested by 
large black ants, which destroyed part of his baggage, 
but also torn with civil war; so that foreigners were 
anything but safe. This made him most anxious to 
reach Gondar, but when he arrived typhoid fever was 
raging fiercely. His knowledge of medicine was very 
useful to him, and procured him a situation under the 
governor, which was most advantageous to him, as it 
rendered him free to scour the country in all directions, 
at the head of a body of soldiers. By these means he 
acquired a mass of valuable information upon the 
government, manners, and customs of the country, and 
