FOREST AND STREAM. 
Aug. 14, 1909] 
249 
e that the bird shooting around Ilarrar was 
;ry good and that there were antelope and 
an to be got within easy distance. 
Bidding good-bye to my friend, but for whom 
should have had endless trouble, I returned 
j Diradawa the following day. My little Abys- 
|nian friend turning up again in some mysteri¬ 
es way, I got him to help with the mules. We 
bt to Diradawa that evening all right and my 
Dmali interpreter told me that my little man 
ished to go with me to Addis, and so I hired 
m and took him with me for my whole trip, 
id even back to Nairobi, whence I sent him 
ime with the rest of the Abyssinians that I 
id hired to look after the horses. 
The next day I was busy straightening out the 
.cks, hiring boys and getting passports, and 
bought four French rifles for my bodyguard 
police boys. It seems to be the height of an 
byssinian’s ambition to carry a rifle, and I 
lieve it is the first thing they purchase when 
ey have sufficient cash. All volunteered for 
e rifles, although it in no way exempted them 
:om packing or driving the mules or doing ordi- 
iry camp work, and there was much jealousy 
linced as to who should have them. At last 
le matter was satisfactorily settled and I be- 
i ve some agreed to take turn and turn about. 
' e now had everything ready to start on the 
orrow. There is a trail from Harrar to Addis- 
obeba also, but I chose the Diradawa road, 
:aring in mind that I should be obliged to re- 
:m there anyway, because of the railroad. 
Early next day we made a start and marched 
out thirty miles. In hot countries it is best 
: start very early, make your march and get 
over and then make your camp and rest com- 
Ertably. Then in the evening you can hunt or 
: what you please. Of course this is not al- 
,.ys possible on account of the distances be- 
:.een water, but if it can be managed, it is the 
:tter way and saves a lot of load’ng and un- 
Ming. There is no time like the early morn- 
T and evening for hunting, and especially so 
you are camped near water and water hap- 
:.is to be scarce in the locality, for game is 
: _ ced to stay in the vicinity. 
■vVe had a good deal of trouble with the mules 
j‘ the first three days. They bucked the packs 
) and played the mischief generally, but after 
o or three good long marches they tamed 
Iwn. The first day out from Diradawa I saw 
uelope. They were similar to the Grant’s ante- 
<e of British East Africa, but the horns were 
orter and stouter. They are the common ante- 
<e—the species most generally met with in 
'yssinia and Somaliland. The rainy season 
ii not yet begun and for this reason it was 
her difficult to arrange our marches so as to 
! to .water. The country in parts was heavily 
ibered and I saw hundreds of baboons and 
me enormous ones. They are most amusing 
'watch, but I must candidly own that I should 
1 : care to meet a troop unarmed. I have heard 
> them attacking women, and the natives in 
; eral parts of Africa are very much afraid 
> them. The old patriarchs always bring up 
1 rear, and really they act very much like a 
iment of soldiers with scouts and outposts. 
Ve crossed some rough mountains and then 
ne out on an arid desert on which nothing 
1 w except prickly bush. The road or trail 
's terrible, although very much traveled in 
1 dry season. The scenery was wild and 
grand and but for caravans I saw no sign of 
human beings. For the most part these cara¬ 
vans consisted of camels, but there were also 
a few mule caravans, loaded principally with 
hides and ivory. The caravans going into the 
country were loaded with stores, rifles and am¬ 
munition. The number of rifles going in is 
grant’s gazelle. 
enormous and it means a lively time for some¬ 
one some day. On the fourth day I saw some 
long-necked gazelles, very pretty, graceful ani¬ 
mals—I believe the right name for these is gali- 
nuk—and succeeded in shooting two of them. 
They were most acceptable, as we were quite 
out of fresh meat. The fifth day we made a 
long march and reached a fine camping ground 
with plenty of good green grass, water and 
shade, and here I decided to remain a day to 
give the mules a chance to rest. On the march 
I saw several dik-d.k, a wonderfully pretty little 
antelope, beautifully marked and no larger than 
a jack rabbit. They keep very closely to the 
bush and are therefore exceedingly difficult to 
shoot, especially with a rifle. 
In the evening I strolled out with my little 
Abyssinian, who had quite attached himself to 
me, but though we hunted hard and there was 
plenty of game sign we saw nothing until near¬ 
ing camp again, when I saw two lesser koodoo 
standing in the shade of a gulley. They were 
within easy distance and I shot both with a 
right and left, but one took a good bit of find¬ 
ing, as he traveled quite a quarter of a mile 
before he dropped. The men were delighted, as 
now they had satisfied themselves that I could 
shoot and thought no doubt that henceforth they 
would have as much fresh meat as they wanted. 
The Abyssinian does not cook his meat like 
most African natives, but eats it raw. It cer¬ 
tainly saves a lot of trouble, but to people who 
are unused to it, it is rather a gruesome spec¬ 
tacle. The koodoo had quite good heads and 
I took a great deal of trouble in taking the 
head skins off and carefully showed both 
Mohammed and the little man the way to do it, 
and after one or two more lessons they were 
quite good at it. I flushed many partridges and 
saw numerous guinea fowl. There are simply 
thousands of these birds and right good eating 
they are too if properly prepared, but I did not 
want to fire off my shotgun for fear of disturb¬ 
ing larger game. What I was most eager to 
get was an oryx and a greater koodoo. The 
former I had shot in British East Africa, but 
those in Abyssinia carry, I think, larger heads, 
and of the latter I had shot only one in North¬ 
western Rhodesia and he was not a large one. 
Both species are numerous in Abyssinia and in 
some districts extremely plentiful. Large herds 
of koodoo, just think of it! 
On my return to camp I sent back boys to 
fetch in the meat and was then informed that 
one of the mules was sick. On examination 1 
found out it was the usual thing, the curse of a 
pack animal, a sore back. Try as you will you 
cannot prevent them. The Abyssinian head boy 
explained to me through interpreter Mohammed 
that if I would allow him to fire the mule he 
would be all right. I must say that up to then 
I had thought that I had some knowledge of 
veterinary work, but I had never heard of firing 
for a sore back. He assured me at the same 
time that if after being fired the mule was pack¬ 
ed and worked he would soon be all right. At 
first I absolutely refused to have it done, but 
he kept on arguing and at last clinched his argu¬ 
ment by saying, “Well, what do you Feringhees 
know about mules, anyhow? You get youl 
knowledge from books, we get ours from prac¬ 
tical experience. Our fathers taught us and their 
fathers taught them.” To this I had nothing 
further to answer, but said, “Go ahead.” On all 
Abyssinian mules you will see marks on the 
withers and back which are caused by firing. I 
did not attend the operation. I am not par¬ 
ticularly soft-hearted, but do hate to see dumb 
animals suffer. Just as I was eating my supper 
there arose a most awful din and bawling, and 
the faint odor of singeing hair and meat was 
wafted over toward my tent. I must own it did 
not increase my appetite. 
That night it rained. It was the beginning 
of the wet season and as at early morning it 
was rtill raining and most uncomfortable, I 
changed m 3 ' mind about rema’ning and ordered 
the mules to be packed, but begged for a holi¬ 
day for the fired mule. The rain made the 
traveling bad and the tent was a heavy load, 
but still in other ways our loads were getting 
lighter. We were now nearing the borders of 
