In Menelik’s Kingdom 
Quelling an Incipient Mutiny—Lost in the Bush 
—Abyssinian Customs—Return to Mombasa 
By JOHN A. M. LETHBRIDGE 
Author of “An Afrikander’s Journal ” 
(Concluded from page 290 .) 
O NE evening I killed four Grant's gazelles, 
one with an extremely good head and 
another fair one, and later on had again 
trouble with the boys. I saw it was coming. The 
horse guards were very slack, so I did not go to 
bed, but lay on the outside with my clothes on 
and went to sleep. It was about 12 o’clock when 
I woke up and outside it was as light as day. 
Hyenas were making a beastly noise all round 
the camp and I got up and went out and found 
all the horse guards asleep. The horses were 
very fidgety and I woke up everybody and 
scolded them for their laziness in not attend¬ 
ing to their work, when all at once one Abys¬ 
sinian fired off his rifle behind me. Luckily it 
did not startle me, but I quietly turned around 
and took his rifle away and asked him what he 
was playing at. The Somali boy answered, 
“That’s Abyssinian fashion; it’s to scare the 
feecee (hyena), but I believe it was to startle 
me. I then instantly made up my mind and 
shouted to Sahid to get all the mules packed, 
break up camp and march. This they did not 
expect, but I said nothing more and began to 
take down my own tent. They now saw that 
I meant what I had said and started to pack, 
grumbling a good deal. However, in a very 
short time we were ready and off. I marched 
all that night and at about 5 o’clock we reached 
water and they wanted to camp, but I would not 
have it and told them we would make the next 
water, and on we went for about four hours 
more. 1 his certainly took all the buck out of 
them and I had no more trouble afterward. 
Early in the morning I saw game, but I had 
no heart for shooting. The constant worry and 
anxiety was telling on me and the whole thing 
was getting on my nerves. There was a good 
large sum of money invested in this undertak¬ 
ing and I was responsible, and \ then more than 
regretted having come alone. When we got to 
camp I packed up again and started out with 
my gun bearer, both on ponies. We had not 
gone far when I saw a ripping greater koodoo 
bull with a cow looking at us, well within sixty 
yards. The Abyssinian had not noticed it and 
1 said, “Give me my rifle, quick.” Of course 
he had it in its case and there he was fumbling 
and fussing ■ to get it out. Still the koodoo 
made no move, but the moment the boy got it 
out of the case off they started. I left my pony 
and followed, hoping to get a shot. Several 
times I saw them, but there was always some¬ 
thing in the way to hinder me from shooting, 
and on I went. At first it was easy enough 
following the spoor, as the ground was soft, and 
1 went on for about two hours before giving it 
up. During the last hour it had poured with 
rain and obliterated my track and I then re¬ 
alized that I could not find the back trail and 
was lost. It is not a pleasant thing to lose your 
way anywhere, but espec ally not in Abyssinia, 
and I only had four cartridges with me and it 
would be dark in a couple of hours. I knew 
of course in which direction I was going, but 
I could not find our cariip. I came across a 
collection of Abyssinian huts, but there were 
no men around, only women, and I could not 
make them understand what I wanted, so I 
pushed on, determining to return there for the 
night if necessary. I fired off two cartridges, 
but had to keep the remaining two for protec¬ 
tion. It was now dark and I had just made up 
my mind to return to the huts, when I heard a 
shot which I answered. It was Sahid with four 
boys looking for me and in an awful fright, 
worse even than the one I was in, I think. I 
was glad and thankful. It is bad enough to be 
lost in a friendly country, but really very far 
from safe in Abyssinia. I then and there made 
up my mind that there would be no more fol¬ 
lowing buck in the future without a boy with 
me. Sahid would have come sooner, but the 
gun bearer lost h:s way, too, and arrived late in 
camp. When having told what had occurred, 
they started to look for me. 
I shall always think that koodoo was a record. 
He had 'certainly the finest head of any I had 
ever seen by a long way. 
Nothing further happened on our journey, 
which was now, thank goodness, nearly at an 
end. I had no more shooting, with the excep¬ 
tion of a few guinea fowl, until we were right 
close to Diradawa and I got two more galinuk. 
On the last day but one we had a little bother 
at some wells. The Abyssinians objected to our 
watering our stock, as water was scarce 
and they had large flocks there. I would not 
have done it had it not been necessary, and by 
this time my crowd had got into a good mood 
again, and “might is right” and I took it. When 
they saw that we were determined to have it 
they made the best of it and bailed it out for us. 
These wells are often thirty or forty feet deep 
and sometimes deeper. The men stand on 
ledges on each side, the one side throwing the 
empty buckets down and the other side the full 
ones up. They sing all the time they are work¬ 
ing. Here I saw no less than seven different 
species of birds in one tree, beautiful ones too, 
but I did not attempt to shoot them, as I had 
only No. 4 shot. At Diradawa I succeeded in 
getting the railway company to run two special 
trains to Djiboutil, with five trucks on each 
engine, one starting two hours in advance of the 
other. I sold all my outfit, tents, pack saddles, 
etc., and made a present of the four rifles to 
the boys who had worked the best. 1 had to 
give a check for the export duty on these ponies, 
which was a considerable item, but the Emperor 
Menelik returned this money to me some months 
later through the English Consul. While en¬ 
training at Diradawa I bought another pony 
which later on turned out a good one. I paid 
off here all the boys I did not require, reserving 
twenty to go with me to Nairobi to look after 
the stock on board ship. I also took with me 
a very rare Abyssinian civet cat that I’ had 
bought in Addis-Abbeba. He was a magnificent 
animal with beautiful markings, but very savage 
and smelt like seven skunks. I am sorry to add 
that he died during the voyage. Had he lived 
it was my intention to have presented him to 
the London zoo. Here at Diradawa I met a 
Russian count just returned from a trip to the 
interior. He was a most entertaining man and 
had with him a regular traveling menagerie 
which he was taking to Cairo, among them two 
fine lions, two marabout storks, over a dozen 
monkeys and a fine black leopard, the first I had 
seen, though I think they are fairly common in 
some parts of Abyssinia. 
I went on the first train, leaving Sahid to take 
charge of the second, and told him to see above 
all things that the stock had water. The heat 
was intense, but at every station where there 
was water I made the Abyssinians carry it to 
the cars. The heat in the cars was awful. I 
arrived at Djiboutil without mishap and un¬ 
loaded. I had made arrangements beforehand 
with the hotel proprietor there for the use of a 
large yard he had at the back of the hotel and 
I also had in readiness stores of hay and grain 
shipped from Aden, besides which I had se¬ 
cured some local stuff from an Arab. This they 
seemed to prefer to the other. After seeing my 
lot safe, I returned to the station to meet the 
second train and found two mules dead in one 
. 
