DONKEY ROBBERIES -- REPRISALS -- A FRIEND IN NEED -- POSTMEN --
APOLOGIES -- A THIEF SURPRISED -- IN SEARCH OF A MILLER -- THE
WAY TO GET WATER -- A SWIM -- ARRIVAL OF MY RIFLE -- CUSTOM-HOUSE
-- ELEPHANT-HUNTING -- HINTS ON COSTUME -- FIRESIDE TALES -- HOW
TO PRODUCE FIRE -- AN EPICURE -- HARTEBEEST AND GIRAFFES --
JUNGLE FIRES.
_Feb. 3._--I find I began my rough journal to-day with these words:
"At last we leave this beastly place, where all has been quarrelling
and bargaining." I certainly was heartily sick of it, and glad to get
away, and so I think were most of us. To make matters worse, before we
started, the servants came and told us that four of our donkeys were
missing, two that the priest had lent us and two that we had bought.
At this we were furious. H. and I both agreed that we would not stand
this sort of nonsense, and we went to K. and told him that we thought
it was disgraceful conduct on the part of the chief, and vowed
vengeance on the old sinner. K. tried to pacify us, and said the
donkeys would turn up in time.
Certainly, to say the least of it, it was very annoying, especially on
the point of departure. We called our servants together and went up to
the ballaga's house where the donkeys had been put for the night. The
young chief evidently thought we had hostile intentions, as his
followers might be seen running in front of him taking the sheaths off
the points of their long spears. When we got to the house we took up
our position just outside the low wall which surrounded it.
The young chief was close to a house not many yards off. I sent word
to say that, if the donkeys were not immediately forthcoming, we
should burn down the man's house and take what goods and chattels he
had there. I went in and took a large jar of honey and an enormous
pumpkin as a sort of security till the donkeys came. At length the two
donkeys we had bought turned up. We then demanded the other two which
the priest had lent us. The Abyssinians said, "They are not paid for;"
to which we replied that he would not sell them to us, but that he
promised to lend them, and that, if they would not give them up, we
should do what we had threatened.
Before going on I may say that we had letters to send to the post, and
it was important they should start that day, so as to catch the
steamer which runs every three weeks. As we were now at loggerheads
with the chief, it would have been difficult to get him to give us a
messenger for so long a journey; but Brou helped me out of this
difficulty. He had a friend among some Mahomedans who lived not far
off, and he told me that if I gave him the letters they would be given
to the head-man of the Mahomedan village, and that he would insure
their being sent to the coast. Brou made all the arrangements, and I
did not, as usual, see the messenger myself and make him swear that he
would carry the letters safely. It eventually transpired that they
reached their destination all right; and in fact we found, all through
our journey, that the Mahomedans were a great deal easier to deal with
in business, bargaining, and arrangements, than the Abyssinians.
I went down into our camp to get the letters and send them off by
Brou, and when I came back I found K. and H. were rather bored with
sitting there and waiting. K. had been inclined to take the
Abyssinians' part; he said it was one of the usual events of
travelling in such a country, and we should not make a great fuss;
this annoyed us still more. At last the donkeys were brought and all
was made right. I returned the jar of honey that I had taken from the
house, and I was going to return the pumpkin, but K. said, "I think we
had better keep this," a remark that amused us very much, as he had
previously been all for the Abyssinians, and now he was quite ready to
take the native's pumpkin. These pumpkins make a very good dish,
boiled in water with a little sugar. It is wonderful on occasions of
this sort how "'cute" one gets at foraging for food. To-day was the
only time, during our whole journey, that I saw a snake. I just caught
a glimpse of the reptile as he wriggled away among some corn sheaves;
he was yellow, and almost of the colour of the corn.
In consequence of the "row" about the donkeys, we could not start
until next day. The old chief, Adik, came to say good-bye to us. He
had never, all through the time of our stay at Adiaboo, been half so
civil as the younger native, and the servants felt unanimously that it
was owing to him that the donkeys had been taken; so I intimated that
I would not say good-bye or take any notice of him unless he
apologised for all the trouble he had given us. I had put it very
strongly to his relative, the young man, and told him, in so many
words, I did not think he had behaved as an Abyssinian chief ought to
behave to Englishmen, when they came to pay a visit to his country. He
said at first that he would not apologise, but at length, towards the
evening, he came up and said he was very sorry for what had happened,
and he hoped we should have a pleasant journey and lots of sport.
_Feb. 4._--This morning we really did make a start, although we had
great difficulty in getting away, as we had fresh servants to look
after the donkeys, the new men did not know the nature of the
packages, and every donkey-load had to be made out separately by
Cassa. We did not go very far this march, but camped near a little
village called Adikai. The people were very civil, and directly the
young chief, who was with us, told them to put up a "das," they did so
at once. The only little event which rather disturbed the harmony of
the scene was one of the natives attempting to snatch away one of our
mechanias. I happened to see this, and, running up to him, gave him a
push that sent him clean head over heels, and I told him to let our
things alone; the people who were looking on all said that it served
him perfectly right.
There was a wedding going on at this village--in fact, I believe this
was the time of year during which most of the weddings in Abyssinia
take place--and the arkees, or groomsmen, who during the week the
wedding is held go about the villages stealing what they can lay hands
on in order to give to the bridegroom, came and danced before us. It
was the same sort of dance that our coolies had entertained us with on
the Mareb: one stepped forward and went through various contortions,
and then, at one part of the dance, they all sat down and clapped
their hands, making a hissing noise. The young chief said if we would
give them a dollar they would be very pleased; so we presented them
with one, and they went away delighted. We had bought a quantity of
corn at Adiaboo for food for our servants in the jungle, but we could
not manage to get it ground at Adiaboo; the young chief, however, said
we should be able to do so in the villages as we went on. He came to
us in the middle of the day and said, "I cannot make the ballagas
grind your corn; you must go through the villages and make them give
you an equal weight of flour in exchange for your corn." The reason
why he could not make the ballagas of the nearest village grind the
corn was that the village belonged to the Monastery of Debra Bizen,
which my readers will remember was situated on a high mountain that
overlooked the little valley of Gindar. The priest of the village said
that the young chief had no power over these people, who paid tribute
to the monastery. We went into the village and said that we must have
some flour, and that we had brought corn to exchange for it. We sent
our servants round to the different houses to fetch the flour, while a
priest, a nice-looking old fellow in a green turban, looked on to see
that we did not take more than was right. From one of the little
hamlets, to which I went to look for some flour, all the inhabitants
ran away, and clustered on a hill close by, looking at Brou and
myself, who had walked up to the houses. We ascertained the folks had
just been at their meals, and Brou, who declared that he had eaten no
breakfast that morning, sat down and demolished the remaining victuals
which he found in the hut. We took what flour we wanted and left corn
in exchange. One of the servants who accompanied me to carry the corn,
wanted as usual to steal something, but I said I would not allow that,
and he must leave the things just as he found them.
As we came back with the flour that we had exchanged for corn we met
the arkees, and Brou said to them, "Do not go up to those houses and
steal the things while the people are away, and then say that we did
it!" This was quite right, as these gentlemen were hanging about, and
they would most likely have made a clean sweep of everything they had
found, and then have said that the Feringee had taken them. Let me
recommend to travellers, when camping near a native village, to watch
for a long string of women, who generally bring up the water from the
nearest stream. Usually your servants have plenty to do without going
to fetch water: the best way is to take the water from the women,
empty it into your own vessels, and let them go back and get more for
themselves. This we did with great success at Adikai, and none of our
men had to go and draw any water at all. Some trifling present soon
put the women in the best of tempers, but I really do not think they
minded the water being taken from them, only they were terribly afraid
lest their jars should be broken. Most of them, when robbed, began
laughing and chaffing our servants.
The next day we went on to the village of Azho, and camped in the dry
bed of a stream, in a field where the Dargousa corn had just been cut.
Our camp was below a high plateau on which this large village was
built. It is the frontier village, and after this you meet no more
habitations till you come to the province of Walkait, which would be
from this point about eight days' travelling on a mule. I had gone on
in front to fix the camp, and found some of our donkeys, which we had
sent on early in the morning, waiting for us there; by-and-by the
whole caravan came up, after which we enjoyed a very pleasant swim in
a little pool in the river. This is a luxury which anybody travelling
in a hot country will thoroughly appreciate, as it is impossible to
take a bath with you while travelling in this sort of way; and we had
to do most of our washing in a chillumchee.[11] The young chief and
some of his followers came and begged some powder and bullets: we gave
them some bullets but very little powder; as it is always dangerous
to give natives powder when they are likely to be with you, because
they might turn your enemies, and it would be adding insult to injury
to be shot with your own ammunition.
The messenger who had brought our letters from home to Adiaboo
informed us that he had passed some men on the road who, he believed,
were bringing some guns and ammunition to us. Here at length was some
news of my long-looked-for Express rifle, and also my heavy rifle. I
had intrusted the carriage of the gun for us to the missionaries who
live at Ailet, and Mr. Lager, the head missionary, said he would
arrange that everything should be forwarded just as it was passed into
his hands from the authorities at Massowah. Sure enough, about noon
the next day, when we were lounging about camp and doing nothing--in
fact, waiting for the guns--I heard a shot on the other side of the
river, and very soon a short little Abyssinian appeared, dressed in
European costume, followed by some natives carrying a box and also
some other cases. I was very much amused at his firing the shot, as he
strutted into camp with an air of great importance, and feeling, no
doubt, that he had accomplished a great task. The shot was to give
notice of his presence as he came along. I never was more pleased in
my life; the guns had arrived just at the right moment, and all were
uninjured and in as good order as when they had left the gun-maker's
shop in St. James's Street. The little fellow who had brought them all
this long way was an Abyssinian that the missionaries had reared and
educated. He said he had had great difficulty in getting along, and
one of the coolies, having fallen sick, had stayed at a village on the
road. The first thing we did was to give them plenty to eat and drink,
such as we had; we then squared accounts with them, and they were to
go back home the next day. Most of this day was spent in unpacking the
ammunition and guns; they seemed to be all right. To-morrow we were to
start for the Tackazzee, and to leave all traces of civilisation, of
any sort, behind us; while we were in the highest possible spirits and
our prospects were of the brightest.
That evening I walked out and went up to the village of Azho to see
what it was like: on my way there I "put up" some quail, but I did not
fire at them. Azho is a large straggling village built on a high
plateau, without any shade in or near it. Some of the natives showed
me the way up a steep hill, where I had another view of the country we
were going to, and I came back when it was quite dark, having seen a
most beautiful sunset over the hills. H. thought I was lost, and was
very nearly sending out to look for me. The country we had been
travelling through from Adiaboo to Azho was very lovely, and the sides
of the low undulating hills were highly cultivated. I have no doubt,
in the valleys, the natives reaped a rich harvest. The village of Azho
itself was a good specimen of Abyssinian dwellings; the people seemed
well-to-do, and the houses carefully and neatly built. There was a
custom-house here, where cotton from Walkait and other distant
provinces paid tribute. Before I go on, I must say that the transport
of my guns from the village of Ailet to where we were at Azho cost 46
dollars, and the coolies considered themselves well paid.
_Feb. 6._--I started off, before H., with a guide to show me the way,
but we chanced, somehow or other, to lose our road, and I was greatly
annoyed. This march I did on foot, as my grey mule, which had a very
sore back, had to be left behind at Adiaboo. K. procured me another,
but it was a sorry brute, and always kicked when being mounted, so I
got rid of it. After wandering about some little time in the jungle,
trying to find our way, we at length hit upon the path, and saw some
of our own donkeys, under the care of Hadji Mahomet, travelling along.
We were to camp at a place called Maidarou, the usual camping-place on
this road for all caravans. There were two very large trees close to
the pools which supplied us with water, and we were very glad of
their shade after the march of the day. For myself, I was rather
tired, and was not in very good working condition, having through most
of our marching been riding a mule. After having lunched we pitched
our tents on the flat top of a little rocky hill which just overlooked
the two large trees that formed the great feature in this
camping-place. On my road here I shot at a gazelle, but, unluckily,
the man who was carrying my Express rifle was some distance behind,
and so I could only fire at it with my little 16-bore gun with a
bullet. The next day we were to come to a place called Coom-Coom-Dema.
This is the head-quarters of those Abyssinians who come down to hunt
elephants, for the young Abyssinians, that is to say the gentlemen of
the country, think it part of their education to come here to shoot
elephants. There are regular ivory hunters, who live at Azho and the
villages near, and these go down to assist. The young Abyssinians who
seek to distinguish themselves shoot at the elephant with small shot
or slugs, just enough to draw blood, and then it is left to the
Neftenias, or hunters, to finish him off with bullets. Their mode of
hunting is rather curious. When they see the elephant, of course they
stalk him with great care: two lines are made; the first line, on
coming up to the elephant, fire and take to their heels as quickly as
possible. If the elephant is wounded, he very often charges, and then
meets the second line, who receive him with a greater number of shots;
they then follow him up, if badly wounded, and despatch him at their
leisure. The Abyssinians are, as a rule, bad sportsmen, and seem to me
to be totally unacquainted with the commonest rules of wood-craft. I
would recommend all sportsmen who hunt in a wild country to adapt
their dress as much as possible to the colour of the landscape in
which they find themselves. I always shot in brown cord breeches and
flax gaiters, with a good cumberbund[12] round my waist, and a
short-tailed coat, which was made of strong cotton stuff that I bought
in India.
All the servants with us, as well as the followers of the young chief,
were in a tremendous fright because of the Baria, the negro tribe of
which I spoke before, and who came up to this part of the country to
hunt the elephant, and also to kill whatever Abyssinians they could
find. I myself never saw one of these redoubtable natives, nor do I
believe they would attempt to attack a well-armed party; but in the
evening, over the camp fire, many terrible stories were told of how
So-and-so was murdered, and how cunning and treacherous the Baria
were. Brou, the interpreter, was not behindhand in telling us all
sorts of terrible things about them. One story he told us was this:
There was a man who lived in a village close to the frontier, and who
had to pay tribute to the chief of his province in ivory. He had gone
down to the desert, or jungle, to hunt the elephant alone; a wily
Baria following him most of the time. It should be stated that this
tribe of natives have no fire-arms, and only hunt and destroy with
spears and knives. The elephant-hunter was stalking an elephant, and
had come up to him; at the moment he fired, the Baria, who had been
sneaking after him, jumped up from behind, drove his knife into him,
and killed him. This is a good example of their treachery; but the
Abyssinians are just as much to blame in regard to the Baria or
Shangallas, for whenever the Abyssinians catch them in much smaller
numbers than themselves they generally kill them.
[Illustration: A WILY BARIA.
To face page 147.]
_Feb. 7._--H. went on in front to Coom-Coom-Dema: I said that as it
was early I should shoot over part of the country and join him later.
I went away into the jungle, which lay south of our camp, and came
upon some old elephant tracks. I had not gone very much farther before
I saw some gazelles; I managed to get near one of them, and, as it was
racing away on the side of a little hill, I rolled it over with my
Express. My gun-bearers very soon skinned it, and they having
succeeded in lighting a fire, I said they might eat some of it. The
way an Abyssinian hunter makes a fire in the jungle is this: he takes
some of his powder and rubs it on a bit of cotton cloth which he tears
off the clothes he is wearing, and then wraps up a percussion cap in
the cloth and hammers the cap between two stones till it explodes;
this ignites the dry cloth, and with the help of some twigs and grass,
and by blowing very hard on the smouldering cotton, he manages to
light a fire. It is wonderful how natives under the most trying
circumstances will kindle a flame where no European would think such a
thing possible.
My gun-bearers were soon roasting the hind-quarters of the gazelle on
the ashes, and also eating some parts of it raw. I was sitting down
under the shade of a tree, and heard Goubasee behind me munching
something; I turned round, and was much disgusted at seeing him eating
the stomach of a gazelle, which was not in the least washed, and in
fact was a filthy sight. This is considered a great delicacy by
Abyssinians, especially when the stomach is covered with the green
undigested food of the animal. After we had all rested, and they had
eaten sufficient, we tracked back on our old path, and soon struck the
regular caravan road. I thought it would have been a long walk, but,
to my astonishment, the hills opened and I saw in front of me a large
plain--this was the plain of Coom-Coom-Dema. H. had pitched the tents,
and everything was ready and comfortable. Just after we had lunched,
one of the servants said that he could see on the plain some large
deer, which he called _tora_; they were in reality hartebeest. They
were going down to drink from the pool where we got our water, but
directly they saw us they trotted off. Some gazelles got up as we were
walking along, and I fired and missed, so did H. There were tracks of
buffalo all about our camp, but they were very old, having been made
during the rains. Barrakee, who had undertaken the sporting
arrangements of the party, said this was a very good place for game,
but we determined not to stop here, but to press on to the Tackazzee,
the goal of my ambition.
_Feb. 8._--This morning we were almost awakened by the noise the
little sand-grouse made in circling round and round our tents. I got
up and brought down two brace of them, as they wheeled round
attempting to settle on some ground close to our camp. It was rather
pretty shooting, as the birds came very fast, and I only wished that I
could have had some more of it, but the rest of the pack soon got
frightened and went away. After this we packed up our traps and left
Coom-Coom-Dema. On the road, Barrakee, who was riding a large white
horse, pointed me out a herd of giraffes about half a mile off. I
attempted to stalk them, but did not succeed in getting near them.
They went off at a slight ambling pace, and when once they had crossed
the little hill, on the near side of which they were feeding, I could
not see them again. Fisk had come with me, and we were both very
anxious to kill something. I shot at some sort of deer, but missed,
and on my way back saw a gazelle, at which I did not fire.
When I came back to the road, completely parched with thirst, as it
was very hot, I found that all our donkeys had stopped: this was very
vexing, as my great object was to get on now as quickly as possible.
Brou said the donkeys were very heavily loaded, that the day was hot,
and that there was no prospect of getting water between where we were
and the Tackazzee. This was simply untrue; for when I found Barrakee
and talked to him upon the subject, it turned out that there was water
farther on; so I immediately made them reload the donkeys and push on.
Barrakee fixed our camp by the edge of a dry river-bed, in which there
was left a large pool of water, and there were tracks of elephants
having drunk here some time previously. We cleared the high grass from
the jungle and pitched our tents, after which H. went out shooting,
but did not get anything. When it was dark we saw jungle fires in the
distance, which our servants all said had been kindled by the Baria to
burn us out. This, of course, was all humbug, or they had nothing
better to talk about. The place we camped at was called Kourasa, or
the house of the long-tailed monkey, and this water-hole which we were
camped by, Barrakee told us, is a regular drinking-place for
elephants; he added, with much mystery and fear, that perhaps they
might come in the night and trample on our camp. I only hoped they
would! The natives assured me that we should find the Tackazzee next
day; and, accordingly, in the morning we started, H. having gone on in
front with the young chief.
FOOTNOTES:
[11] _Chillumchee_ is an Indian word for a flat-bottomed tin basin.
[12] _Cumberbund_ is an Indian word for a thick scarf which is wound
round and round the waist; it is a great preventive against sunstroke
and chills.