As each evening closed, the appearance over the high range of Bulga was
magnificent. Dark clouds, occasionally pierced by a bright ray of the
sinking sun, drove in dense volumes across this mountain wall; and as
they rolled on towards the lofty cone of Megasus, they revealed in their
track the precipitous and rugged nature of bluffs which had before
presented an unbroken surface. Rain not unfrequently fell during the
night, and penetrating the flimsy cotton awnings as if they had been
cullenders, rendered an umbrella necessary towards the protection of the
damp pillow.
Resolved to view the mysterious Fantali from the country of the Karaiyo
Galla, whence might be determined the interesting question of its
activity or quiescence, I planned an excursion with Captain Graham to
the lake Muttahara, whose glassy bosom, surrounded by great belts of
yellow grass, and stretching along the western base of the volcano, we
had regarded with intense curiosity, as it sparkled under the beams of
the setting sun. Absence of water on the road rendered it imperative
that our party should be limited; and the insuperable aversion displayed
by every follower to a second expedition to the low country caused
little disappointment. Many had already suffered severely from
inflammation of the eyes; and greater difficulty could hardly have been
experienced in obtaining volunteers for the most desperate forlorn
hope--the Aroosi beyond the Hawash, a tribe distinguished for surpassing
ferocity, being declared the bitter enemy of every Christian and
Mohammadan.
The governor had already proceeded in advance, to collect his vassals;
and on the morning fixed for our departure a heavy white fog, such as is
wont to envelope the capital of Shoa during three-quarters of the year,
veiled the entire face of nature. The first five miles led across the
richly-cultivated terrace of Berhut, amid numerous hamlets which
gradually became visible as the mist ascended. Aingodiye, on the top of
the pass, together with the entire district of that denomination,
pertains to the Lady Asagash, who, decked in her holiday costume,
politely sallied forth, with her train of household slaves and
handmaidens, to greet the passing strangers.
This portly dame, whose appearance is truly indicative of her wealth,
was the favourite concubine of the famous Medoko at the period of his
assassination; and having been suffered by the despot to retain the
extensive domains conferred upon her paramour during the days of his
glory, a thrifty disposition has swelled her hoard of corn, oil, and
beeves, beyond all bounds. In her retinue came a disconsolate couple
chained together by the wrists--thieves no doubt--and said to be man and
wife, whom the Woizoro facetiously declared it had been found requisite
to link by bonds stronger than those of wedlock, in order to counteract
a decided disinclination to the society of the husband, evinced by the
inconstant spouse in three several elopements.
Descending by a steep pass through the district of Goorooreza--a perfect
wilderness of rugged mountains--we crossed the river of that name near
its junction with the Casam, and shortly afterwards the Casam itself,
from which all the villages for many miles round derive their supply of
water. Taking its source in the elevated plains of Germama, this
tributary of the Hawash escapes through the mountains by a deep defile,
worn in the lapse of ages by the autumnal torrents, betwixt Mentshar and
Bulga. Thence it winds on beneath perpendicular bluffs jutting out from
the high table-land. Of these the principal is the frowning promontory
of Gougou, which, like a natural fortress, abruptly terminates the Tudla
Mariam plateau, extending to Angollala in one uninterrupted terrace,
celebrated for the capsicums and fine cotton wool raised by its
Christian population.
From the bed of the Casam the road wound up the Choba ravine, through a
fissure formed near the point of junction by two gigantic blocks of
granite, which confine the rugged defile to just sufficient width for
the transit of a mule. The stupendous mass wore the appearance of
having been hurled in remote ages from the summit of the impending
cliff, the force of the concussion rending it in twain, and forming the
key to a road, which by a handful of resolute men might be defended
against the mightiest host. An ascent of one thousand feet over the
Woleecha mountain, by a narrow path worn in the columnar trap, led to
another elevated plateau, where, after the arrival of the governor, the
staff was set up for the night at the Moslem village of Seeagur, eleven
miles from Dummakoo.
The threshing-floor whereon our tent was erected, standing upon one of
the many tongues of table-land that intersect the district of Wolagur,
looked down a long lone valley bounded on the opposite side by the
perpendicular wall of Boorkikee, upon the verge of which, surrounded by
a milk-bush hedge, rose the secluded church of Saint George, the last
Christian edifice of Mentshar. The sudden termination of the terrace,
which abruptly drops into the country of the Galla, commanded an
extensive prospect over the wilderness of Taboo, bounded by the distant
blue hills of the Gamoo and Aroosi. Rising among the Sama Galla, and
overflowing the level land in the season of its height, the Taboo, like
most of the secondary streams in this district, is dissipated by the
fiery heat of the plains before reaching the Hawash.
Double the number of retainers, both horse and foot, to that which
actually appeared on the morrow, had been summoned; but many preferred
paying the fine incurred by absence, to accompanying their liege lord
into jungles hitherto little trodden by the Christian. A respectable
retinue was, however, in attendance; and we set out at an early hour for
the lake Muttahara. A rugged winding descent, due south, led to the
foot of the Wolagur range, whence an extensive tract stretches away to
Fantali, beautifully wooded, covered with flocks and herds, and
disclosing in every direction the beehive cabins of the Karaiyo, a tribe
equally rich in cattle and in pasture land.
It is now fifteen years since an Amhara expedition under the Dech
Agafari overran this then independent district from the highlands of
Mentshar. The inhabitants, flying for shelter to their thick hook-thorn
coverts, sustained little loss in killed; but the whole of their wealth
was swept away, and thirty thousand fat beeves were presented to the
monarch on the plains of Angollala, as an earnest of successful foray.
Since that period the Karaiyo have been nominally dependent on Shoa,
paying an annual tribute of twenty oxen, and the left tooth of every
elephant entrapped or found dead--a mild taxation, with which they are
sufficiently content to abstain from revolt, although the hold over them
is too slight to admit of farther impost--the principal advantage
derived from their submission being the interposition of a barrier
against the inroads upon the Amhara frontier of the savage Aroosi.
The Karaiyo territory, extending about forty miles in length by thirty
in breadth, consists of a succession of open uncultivated plains,
covered with luxuriant shade, and intersected by low ranges of grassy
hills, dotted with spreading trees--altogether a highly enviable site
for a small nomade tribe, although much scourged by the neighbouring
Aroosi, and presenting the very theatre for a hasty inroad. Portions of
the district often suffer much from drought; but a most opportune fall
of rain the preceding night had completely deluged the country, and
poured into every pool along the route a plentiful supply of muddy
water.
Taking an easterly direction towards Fantali, we passed numerous
well-peopled hamlets, occupying all the secluded nooks, and as wealthy
in flocks and herds as if the Amhara besom had never swept the land.
From constant exposure to the heat and glare, and the habit of closing
the eyelid to increase the power of vision, the swarthy features of even
the youngest of the blinking inhabitants were deeply furrowed with
premature wrinkles, which, with a turn-up nose, and the greasy
unbecoming Galla costume, rendered those who had numbered many seasons,
truly hideous.
In an easterly direction the course was bounded by the great isolated
crater of Saboo, yawning in the very centre of a well populated plain,
and said to have been in full activity in the time of Sahela Selassie's
grandsire, who reigned only thirty years ago; an assertion which was
fully borne out by the recent appearance of the lava streams. The
long-horned oryx, with great herds of antelope, grazed around every
pool--the latter little disturbed by the presence of those who tended
the flocks of sheep and goats, and whose groups of circular wigwams
peeped forth in every sequestered corner.
An ancient crone of surpassing ugliness, attired in a leathern petticoat
flounced with cowrie shells, was busily engaged by the way-side in
transferring muddy water to her scrip, and looking up, was perfectly
horrified at the appearance of a white face on the opposite border of
the puddle. For a few seconds her old yellow teeth chattered audibly,
and then, satisfied that there was no deception, she called loudly upon
the goddess Ateti, threw herself back upon the ground, and became a prey
to abject despair.
Resuming a southerly course from the foot of the crater, our path led at
right angles over a tract where broken abysses, lava dykes, and
brilliant belts of verdure, were jumbled together in strange confusion.
At an early hour in the afternoon we reached Inkoftoo, the principal
Karaiyo kraal in the district of Kadecha Dima. Standing beside an
extensive pool, screened on all sides by luxuriant trees, it was
strongly fortified by stiff thorn-branches against the inroads of the
lion; formidable troops of which, roaming almost unmolested, commit
great havoc among the cattle, and had only the night before carried off
a youth belonging to the village.
It wanted still some miles of the spot in which Habti Mariam had
resolved to encamp, near the borders of the Muttahara lake, whose placid
surface, not less than two miles across, extended almost to the base of
Fantali. The chief of Inkoftoo had seen a rhinoceros in the morning,
among the dense thicket of hook-thorns covering the declivity of a hill
on the way; but although one of the governor's braves, elevating his
sheep-skin mantle upon the point of his lance, charged the assembled
multitude in the king's name to abstain from clamour and from
interference with the arrangements made for beating up the quarters of
the "_ouraris_," the clattering hoofs of the advancing cavalcade
presently put the animal to flight towards the Hawash. It were
difficult to determine whether the fear of the Aroosi or of wild beasts
now predominated in the minds of our Amhara escort. In spite of a heavy
fall of rain, large watch-fires were kindled in various parts of the
lone bivouac, and not a single eye was closed until the day had fairly
dawned.
Volume 3, Chapter XXX.