In Menelik’s Kingdom 
Shooting and Other Incidents of a Journey into 
Abyssinia in Search of Horses. 
By JOHN A. M. LETHBRIDGE 
Author of "An Afrikander’s Journal ” 
A BOUT the beginning of August, 1906. 
I started from Nairobi, British East 
Africa, for Addis-Abbeba, the capital 
of Abyssinia. It was a business trip, but I in¬ 
tended, if'possible, to do some hunting on the 
journey. As my time was limited, I decided to 
go by steamer to Aden and there to take an¬ 
other steamer to Djiboutil, the port on the coast 
of French Somaliland, and go the rest of the 
way, some 600 miles, overland. 
My purpose in going was to buy ponies and 
mules for shipment to East Africa, where there 
is a good, though limited, market for them. By 
this I mean that if you have a farm in British 
East Africa where you are able to run your 
stock at a moderate cost and so can put a cer¬ 
tain number of animals on the market at fixed 
intervals, you can average £30 for a mule and 
any sort of a decent pony will fetch £40 and 
upward, according to the class of animal. I was 
not taking this journey on my own initiation, 
but was backed and sent by W. N. McMillan, 
an American, who has a wonderful place twenty 
miles from Nairobi. He supplied me with all 
the different necessaries and with letters to dif¬ 
ferent people both at Aden and Addis-Abbeba, 
where he had been on a trip some years before, 
and gave me instructions and advice to assist 
me on my journey as much as possible. 
I got the German East African steamer at 
Mombasa and reached Aden in ' the ordinary 
course. Here I took on an interpreter, a Somali 
boy, Mohammed by name, who spoke both English 
and Arabic fluently, but who afterward turned 
out to be a real bad lot and caused me more 
trouble and annoyance than the whole of my 
caravan put together. Luckily at the same time 
I also hired another Somali boy as my personal 
servant. He was not quite so intelligent as 
Mohammed, but I found him honest and willing, 
and he was of the greatest use to me in many 
ways. At Aden T also laid in a stock of pro¬ 
visions for the journey. This I afterward found 
out was a mistake, as there are good stores both 
at Djiboutil and Diradawa, the border town of 
Abyssinia, and although prices are naturally a 
little higher at those places, yet I think the 
duty and freight I had to pay quite offset this, 
not counting the trouble and anxiety of look¬ 
ing after the stuff. 
We took passage at Aden in the “Woodcock,” 
a small steamer belonging to Cowasjee, Dinshaw 
& Co. This boat runs from Aden to Djiboutil 
and back about twice a week. In fine weather 
it is a pleasant trip, but in rough weather in¬ 
describable, for she is small and rolls and 
pitches tremendously, and there is often a good 
large sea running outside Aden. Luckily I am 
a good sailor and heavy seas do not affect me. 
We reached Djiboutil the following day, taking 
about twenty hours to cross. 
Like Aden, Djiboutil is quite a large town. 
It is the largest coastal port of French Somali¬ 
land, and the French steamship line, the Messa- 
geries Maritimes, call there on their way to and 
from Madagascar. The heat there is terrific. 
Aden is bad enough in all conscience—they have 
not had any rain there for eight years—but it 
does not come up to Djiboutil. The whole town 
is French with the exception of a few Greek 
and Indian storekeepers. From here there is 
a railway line some 120 miles in length that 
goes to Diradawa, the border town of Abyssinia, 
d he journey occupies a whole day and one 
travels through a most desolate, uninteresting 
country, all rocky hills and stony arid desert, 
with very little water. There are a few ante¬ 
lope of different sorts and some lions and leop¬ 
ards, but the natives are treacherous and there¬ 
fore to be avoided. At the few wayside sta¬ 
tions there were seen only a few Somalis, beg¬ 
ging or trying to sell some skins and antelope 
horns, but toward the border the country grows 
more fertile and can boast a certain amount 
of timber and vegetation. They do not run 
trains on this line at night. I am told on good 
authority that they dare not, for fear the 
Somalis might wreck the trains. They make you 
pay very heavily for your baggage and by their 
charges one would imagine that you were buy¬ 
ing the railway outright. 
We reached Diradawa in the evening, too 
late, however, to pass our baggage through the 
Custom House, but I managed later on to have 
all my stuff passed and delivered without any 
trouble. There is quite a comfortable hotel here 
kept by a Frenchman and his wife. Here, as 
at Djiboutil, everything is French with the ex¬ 
ception of the ubiquitous Greek and Indian. 
Next morning I hired a mule and set out for 
Harrar, an Abyssinian town forty miles distant, 
also on the border. A railway line has been 
built part of the way, but no rails are laid. I 
understand it was started by a French company, 
but that the Emperor changed his mind and 
would not allow them to continue building the 
road. Harrar is a town of considerable import¬ 
ance and is larger than Diradawa. It is in the 
center of the celebrated coffee producing coun¬ 
try and is in one of the finest farming districts 
of Abyssinia. It boasts a bank and one or two 
rather large buildings, but the streets are extra¬ 
ordinary. In Abyssinia they have no wagons 
or carriages; everything is carried on horseback, 
and so the streets are only just wide enough 
for two mules to pass. The whole town is sur¬ 
rounded by a high wall and the gates are shut 
and barred at 9 o’clock and nobody is allowed 
to pass in or out after that. About six miles 
from Harrar on the road to Diradawa there is 
a large lake, called Harrarmeer, which is simply 
swarming with wild fowl of every description, 
and the snipe shooting around it is wonderful. 
On my way from Diradawa, a small Abys¬ 
sinian overtook me on the road. He was on 
foot, but by signs he made me understand that 
he too was going to Harrar and would show 
me the way. The way this little man ran was 
marvelous. Lie did the forty miles easily enough 
and I think that I and my mule were very much 
more fatigued than he was. 
I had a letter to an Englishman who was em¬ 
ployed in the bank of Abyssinia at Harrar and 
this I presented the next day, explaining to him 
that I was on my way to Addis, and asking his 
advice as to whether I should hire or buy mules : 
for the journey. He strongly advocated the latter 
course as by far the cheaper in the long run, 
and I sent out some Abyssinians to bring in 
mules for me to look at. Horses and mules can 
be bought very much cheaper in the interior than 
at the border, but I required at least ten to ride 
and pack on my journey. The Englishman was 
most kind and gave me every assistance and by 
the following evening I had bought the animals 
I required as well as pack saddles, ropes and all 
rigging. The average price of the mules I 
bought was about $45. The price was large, 
but among them I had two riding or “Segar” 
mules, as they are called, and for one I gave 
$80. Mules in Abyssinia are worth more money 
than ponies and a riding mule about twice the 
price of a pack animal. I must mention that 
the money used in Abyssinia is the Marie 
Theresa dollar, value about one-half an American 
dollar, and this, barring some very small coins, 
is the only one in use. The usual currency up 
country, if you wish to make small purchases 
such as eggs, chickens or milk, is cartridges. 
The rifle generally in vogue among the people 
is the old French chassepot, and cartridges to 
fit this are currency anywhere. My friend told 
