THE FOREST -- THE TACKAZZEE AT LAST -- A FORD -- AN UNHEALTHY
CAMP -- HIPPOPOTAMI -- A RAFT -- ON THE ELEPHANT TRACK -- IN
SIGHT OF GAME -- A LION AND A MESS -- BIVOUACKING -- BEGINNING OF
MY ILLNESS -- GUINEA FOWL -- WE TURN HOMEWARDS -- "THE BLUES" --
RAFT-BUILDING -- A CARAVAN -- ELEPHANT AGAIN -- A BIG FISH! --
NEWSPAPERS -- CHANGE OF QUARTERS -- THE GAME OF "GALANIFT."
_Feb. 9._--To-day I was to take charge of the heavy baggage and
donkeys; this we generally took it in turns to do. I caught H. up at a
river, where I found them all drinking. He went on directly, and I
stopped for an hour to rest our twenty-one donkeys and their drivers,
and to let them have something to drink. The country we were
travelling through had changed; we were at a much lower level than we
had been before, and dome-palms grew in every direction, the shorter
and younger ones of which made a thick jungle which we pushed our way
through, the leaves causing a great rattling as we went on. This was
much more my idea of an African forest than anything I had ever seen
before. I saw a hagazin on the side of a hill near me, and tried to
stalk it. I got so close to the animal that I could hear him making a
peculiar grunting noise close to me, but for the life of me, in the
thick jungle, I could not make out where he was. I moved on a little
farther, and then I saw him trotting away in the distance. Elephant
tracks were to be seen in all directions crossing the main path along
which we travelled, and fresh elephant dung was here in quantities.
I travelled on through the forest and came upon the party of the young
chief, who was waiting for me by some water, H. having come across
elephants and gone after them. I asked the little chief why he had not
gone with him to hunt elephants; he said, in the most polite way, that
he was staying behind to wait for me. I thanked him, and determined to
push on again and make the Tackazzee that day. Mahomet, one of the
coolies, or rather donkey-drivers, that we had brought with us from
Adiaboo, volunteered to act as guide. I pushed on as quickly as
possible, and, about half-past four in the afternoon, the servants
pointed out the Tackazzee. There, sure enough, was a broad river below
me, running between high rocky hills, with its waters gleaming in the
setting sun. I was standing several hundred feet above it, and on the
left of me, on the same side on which I was, was a green jungle of
grass and tamarisk bushes fringing the bank of the river. A large
herd of hagazin had just been drinking, and they were moving quietly
away, the males leading and the hinds following with the little fawns
trotting at their feet. The whole scene was really a beautiful one,
and I stopped for some little time to admire the view which lay before
me. The natives had pointed out the antelope to me, but I was too
excited to take any notice, so I gave them a view-halloo, and told the
guide to lead me to the bottom of the hill where the river ran. When
we got down into the green jungle which fringed the bank of the river
it was so high we could not see over it, and pushing on through it, we
soon found ourselves on the shingly bed of the river. The water was
beautifully clear, and I gladly drank a draught of it. We then forded
the river with some of the more lightly-laden donkeys, which had
managed to keep up and follow me. Goubasee, on his arrival at the
other side, held up his hands and exclaimed, "God has brought us
safely here!" I was so pleased to see a large river again that I took
off my boots and paddled about in the water, for almost the last
fresh-water stream of a good size I had seen was the one on which the
Citizen penny steamers glide.
We had brought down two cows from Adiaboo with us, and these animals
were very nearly swept away by the stream, where they would have been
devoured by crocodiles. The man who had charge of them lost his head,
and became very nearly as frightened as were the beasts themselves; at
last some of the servants rushed into the water, got below the cows,
and drove them back to the bank they started from. They then attempted
again, and crossed in safety. I fixed the camp amidst a large grove of
dome-palms; a prettier place could not well be imagined. The ground
was perfectly flat; in fact, as if it had been thoroughly stamped
down. There was a beautiful shade of a large leafy tree close by, but
unluckily, as is often the case in Eastern climes, where the scene is
of the loveliest the place is most unwholesome; and, as proved
afterwards, most of us, myself included, fell ill, which I believe was
a great deal owing to our not having fixed our camp on one of the high
hills that overlooked the river, instead of down in the river-bed.
_Experientia docet_, and, as my readers will see afterwards, I paid
dearly for what little experience I gained in rough travel in this
country.
I heard, in a pool below the ford where we had crossed, some animals
making an unusual noise, grunting and blowing. I went down with my
gun-bearers to the edge of the river, and, behold! there were eight
fine hippopotami disporting themselves in the river, much in the same
way as the old river-horse at the Zoo may be seen swimming about his
tank. They reared themselves out of the water and exposed their heads
and part of their necks, sometimes opening their enormous jaws so that
I could see their white tusks. I fired at the nearest of the herd, and
hit him behind the ear. He began bleeding profusely, and waltzed round
and round in the water, causing tremendous waves. At last in about
half an hour he sank, and we saw him no more. I shot at several more
and, I believe, killed another, but we saw no traces of them again;
and I think it is a great chance, in a large rapid river of this sort,
if their carcases are found at all. I sent servants during the
following days up and down the river, but they were quite unsuccessful
in finding any trace of the beasts. H. did not come in till late,
having gone after an elephant he had wounded. He told me they had
found large clots of blood on the animal's track, but that he had to
give up as they were getting far away from our line of march and from
any water-pools. Cassa arrived very late with the rest of the donkeys.
He assured us that one of the Baria had fired the jungle in a circle,
and so had tried to surround him and some of the more heavily-laden
donkeys which had lagged behind. This was quite believed by all our
servants, and it made a great impression on some of them.
_Feb. 10._--To-day we rested most of the morning. In the afternoon I
went down to the pool where the hippopotami were, but they had got
much more shy, and showed only just the tops of their heads and their
wicked-looking little ears above water. As one opened his jaws I hit
him smack in the mouth; this sounded just as if a bullet had gone into
a stack of faggots. He sank immediately, and I could not in the least
tell whether I had killed him or not. As these hippopotami had got so
shy, I commenced to-day, with the help of Brou, to make a raft on
which to try and go down the river to them. Some of the dome-palms had
fallen down from old age and from the effects of the floods that sweep
by during the rainy season; I proposed to lash these together with raw
hide, but I had nothing except a hand-saw to cut the logs the proper
length, and the palm wood was very hard and the weather very hot.
_Feb. 11._--We had arranged with Barrakee to go for three days and
sleep out, or bivouac, and hunt elephants; we accordingly started
straight inland towards the mountains of Walkait. After we had crossed
the hills, under which the Tackazzee ran, we came upon a sort of open
plain with little hills cropping up here and there, and we had been
following fresh elephant tracks the whole time. I must not forget to
mention that during the night a large herd of elephants had passed
close to our camp, and that all the jungle round was trampled and
broken in every direction. I just remember, in a half-sleepy state,
hearing strange noises, but I thought at the time that it was only the
"hippos" disporting themselves in the pool below. At last Barrakee,
who was going in front, said that we were getting very close to the
elephants, and that we must leave our mules behind us, and follow them
up the rest of the way on foot. Not long afterwards we saw two
elephants in the distance moving slowly along. We tried to stalk them,
but we did not succeed. Barrakee took us to some water, where we
drank, and close by which, as we came up to it, were some pigs lying
asleep under a tree. An Abyssinian tried to knock one over with the
butt of his gun, for we did not like to fire, being so close to the
elephants.
After we had halted for a little time and rested ourselves, Barrakee
said we should move on, and he took us to the top of a steep little
hill, where he said we were to pass the night, and from whence we
could see the whole country round us. Brou, and a couple of men that
Barrakee had with him, built us a "das." We ate some luncheon, and
then we sat down to watch for any elephant that might perchance be
about. We had thus waited for about an hour when Barrakee leaped up
and said he saw two elephants in the distance, so we got our guns and
went off to stalk them. The elephants were walking towards the south,
following the main body of the herd which had passed very early in the
morning. Our object was to cut them off on their way, and Barrakee led
us sometimes over the low hills, and sometimes round the sides of
them, and we gradually approached nearer the two elephants, who were
moving along swinging their trunks about, and sometimes stopping to
pick off a bit of a shrub which looked more dainty than the rest. At
last there was only one little hill for us to go over, and to cross it
would bring us right across the path of the two elephants. We were
creeping along very quietly when, as we came to a few rocks, where, in
the rainy season, a torrent evidently poured down, Barrakee stopped
suddenly and said, "Ambasa!" which is Amharic for lion. I snatched
hold of my Express, rushed up and saw a fine male lion moving slowly
away among the rocks. At the moment I was going to fire, H. came up
and fired his heavy rifle close behind me; both barrels went off at
once, and I thought at first I was shot, as nine drams of powder is
rather a large charge to be let off close to one's ear. I missed the
lion; so did H. I loaded again and ran after him and fired, and
missed. The elephants, which were not more than forty or fifty yards
off, went off in another direction, and the lion, passing through
some trees, "put up" a herd of large deer which went also in a
different direction. It was a sight grand enough, but we had made a
terrible mess of the whole thing: we ought not to have fired at the
lion, and, as the servants said, "If you had killed the elephants,
plenty of lions would have come to pick the bones." I may tell my
readers that the lions in Abyssinia are not like the familiar picture
that is everywhere to be seen of animals with enormous manes, as the
species in this country have no mane at all. We then walked back to
the little hill whereon we were to camp that night, all of us
disappointed and crestfallen. The whole of the top of this hill was
covered with the most beautiful sweet-smelling grass, and of this we
gathered a large quantity to make our beds. I had arranged with one of
our servants to bring out my little camp bed and blankets, but, as we
went away from camp rather quickly, following up the tracks of the
elephant, the native lost his way, and I had nothing to cover me but
some sacking, which the medicine case was wrapped up in. That night we
slept very comfortably and warmly, as the grass made a capital bed.
_Feb. 12._--This day we moved away on the track of the herd of
elephants. The jungle became denser, and Barrakee halted us by a
beautiful stream of water, and pointed out a hill close by, where he
said we should camp that night. A little river that we were near was
full of small fish, and I amused myself by trying to catch some of
them by damming up a part of the river, but I did not succeed. After
luncheon I went up the stream, and found Barrakee and H. seated on a
rock engaged in trying to catch some fish; one of them with a crooked
pin, and the other with the only hook we had in camp. Amongst us we
managed to lift three out of the water; these I cleaned and brought
them back into camp for dinner. After catching the fish we took a most
delicious swim in the pool. That night, unluckily for me, there was no
grass to be found, and I borrowed a blanket from Brou, but, foolishly,
instead of covering myself up with it, I rolled it up and used it as a
pillow. I caught a chill in the night, and in consequence, found
myself suffering from severe diarrhœa in the morning. From this day
date all my troubles, illness, and misfortunes. It certainly was very
unfortunate, as we had only just got into the country where the game
was really to be found.
This only shows how particularly careful one ought to be when leading
a life of this sort, and especially when sleeping out in the open air.
A good thick flannel belt should always be worn next the skin. What I
really believe gave me this chill was that I took off the cumberbund,
which had been wound tightly round my waist, in order to sleep more
comfortably. This proceeding was a terrible mistake, as it is in the
night time and the early dawn that these chills are acquired, which
prove at all times most deadly, especially in a hot climate.
On the whole, I should consider Abyssinia to be a very healthy
country. The only two complaints which Europeans seem to suffer from
are intermittent fevers--which are not, as a rule, of a very dangerous
nature--and dysentery, which, of course, if proper remedies and
suitable food are at hand, is not serious, but under other
circumstances may prove very dangerous. Let me urge upon all
travellers who go to seek adventure and sport in Africa to remember to
keep their heads well protected from the sun, and their loins well
girded with either a thick cumberbund, worn outside, or, better still,
a flannel belt worn next the skin. Every one will notice that the
natives are dressed in this way, especially the Arabs who live at
Massowah, where the climate is very hot. It would be useless for me to
go into the different diseases the natives of the country are subject
to. There is one which I have already mentioned, that is the tænia, or
tapeworm. They are also subject to intermittent fevers during the
rains, and suffer from a complaint caused by a parasite called the
Guinea worm, which is a worm that forms in the flesh, very often the
thigh, and has to be gradually twisted out. If during the operation
the worm breaks, a horrible ulcer forms. As to scrofula and its
origin, I saw very little of it, the natives seeming, on the whole,
pretty free from this terrible scourge. When a person among them is
afflicted with very bad rheumatism they have rather an original way of
effecting a cure, which is by putting bits of cotton on the parts
affected, and igniting them, making them burn fiercely by blowing upon
the cotton. This is even sometimes done for the purpose of creating
beauty marks, as they are considered--a young man showing his
fortitude by allowing one of the fair sex to light one of these bits
of cotton, and blow on it to create as much heat as possible. If by
any chance he flinches, or shows any indication of pain, he is thought
to be a coward, and not worthy of the lady's notice. Concerning this
mode of curing rheumatism, I believe there is some similar custom
among country people in England, the _modus operandi_ being a heated
flat iron with which the affected limb is treated.
_Feb. 13._--I rode out this morning on my mule through a green, thorny
jungle which lay opposite the hill on which we were camped. I was on
the lookout for big game, and so did not fire at a large flock of
guinea-fowl which I put up: there must have been at least two or three
hundred of them, and they all rose at once, making a tremendous row.
It was a very pretty sight, and one quite peculiar to the country
which I was in. I felt very seedy, and disinclined to do anything; and
so having gone straight through this patch of jungle I came to the
little stream again, where I sat down by a pool, and waited there for
most of the day, in hopes of some animal coming down to drink.
Barrakee, who had been out in a different direction with H., not long
after I had been here, came up, and H. went on down the stream, while
Barrakee and myself watched over the pool. A little gazelle came to
drink: instead of my waiting in order to get a broadside shot, I fired
at it while it was looking at me, and the result was to break one of
its fore-legs. Barrakee rushed after it, but we saw no more of it. I
then mounted my mule, which had been grazing close by, and rode home
into camp. Our three days were over, our provisions finished, and we
resolved the next day, which was Sunday, to start for home.
_Feb. 14._--I was worse to-day, and we started early for our camp on
the Tackazzee. The servants, while we had been absent, had, according
to arrangement, moved the camp away from the river; Fisk had been left
in charge. The reason of this move was they were all very much
frightened of the Baria, and thought, as we should be absent with our
guns, that it would be better if they got away from the river, by
whose banks the Baria are supposed to be always lurking. I rode
towards camp feeling very desponding, and on the way H. fired at some
pig, and wounded one badly, but the beast managed to get away, leaving
large tracks of blood on its path. We also saw some strange-looking
deer, of a colour resembling that usual with donkeys, but with short
horns curving back from their foreheads like those of goats: they
stood, I should think, very nearly fourteen hands from the ground. On
our way back we passed the spot which had been the scene of our
unlucky exploit with the lion, and, curiously enough, two gazelles
came bounding past at the time, but we succeeded in missing them; we
were fated to kill no game in this place. When I rode into camp, Hadji
Mahomet, the old native we had brought from Massowah, came up to
welcome us back, and said, in Arabic, "Allah has brought you safely
back." I felt very much inclined to reply, and I believe I did at the
time, "No, my mule has brought me back," as I felt very disappointed,
and looked upon the expedition we had made as a total failure. I was
very glad to get into a comfortable bed, as the coolie, who had lost
his way, had succeeded in finding the camp the servants had pitched a
little way off from the Tackazzee.
_Feb. 15._--I was still bad with this horrid complaint, and so I
stayed in camp reading the few books we had with us, and took
medicine; I also amused myself by making a small model of the raft
that I proposed to use when hunting the hippopotami, in order that
Brou might understand how to go on working at it. H. and Fisk went out
shooting partridges to make broth for me. There were not nearly so
many partridges here on the Tackazzee as we found on the Mareb; for
the tamarisk bushes which fringe the banks of the Mareb were, as a
rule, full of them. With a couple of dogs we might really have had
some very good shooting, and made big bags; but without dogs it was
almost impossible to get the birds up, as they ran so tremendously;
but when they did get up they were not hard to shoot, as they did not
seem to fly nearly so strongly as the English birds, which they very
much resembled, with one exception, which was that their bills and
legs were red, the plumage being exactly the same. We tried to keep
some of the birds, in order to give them that gamy flavour which is
esteemed in England; but the weather was too hot, and the flesh got
bad too quickly. The rapid setting-in of decomposition was a great
drawback when a beast was killed in camp, as the meat had to be eaten
almost immediately; but, both in its raw and cooked state, it is
surprising what a quantity the natives will manage to consume.
_Feb. 16._--To-day I was very much better, the medicine seemed to have
done me good; but, instead of staying in camp and perfecting my cure,
I stupidly went out and did a hard day's work, standing up to my
middle under water in a hot sun, to complete the raft. The raft when
finished was, to speak fairly, a great success. It was made in the
following way: Six logs of the dome-palm tree were lashed with raw
hide, cut from the skin of one of the cows which we had killed in
camp; the logs were lashed to two cross pieces, and from one cross
piece to the other I fixed two thin pliable boughs, under which I
jammed a lot of dry "hippopotamus grass" (the long grass growing by
the side of the river), which had been cut a day or two before and put
out in the sun on the shingly bank of the river to dry. The grass was
jammed in under these thin sticks, so that it went across the logs and
made a place for any one to stand in, and also assisted in promoting
the buoyancy of the raft.
A caravan of about three or four hundred people came across the river
to-day on their way to Walkait. These caravans generally assemble in
Tigré, in order to make up a large number, so that their goods may be
properly cared for in case of any attack by the Baria. One man among
them had a couple of very good-looking donkeys; he must have procured
them from some of the Arab tribes who live on the borders of the
country; I tried to buy one of the donkeys, but the man wanted a
great deal too much for it. The caravan only stayed close to our camp
during the heat of the day, and in the afternoon they moved on. They
were bringing back grain and salt, having taken out cotton to the
different towns in the province of Tigré.
_Feb. 17._--I am better to-day, and I worked at the raft to put the
finishing touches to it. In the afternoon I went out fishing, and I
had put on a hook with a piece of raw meat as bait, having made a rod
of two bamboo sticks spliced together. I caught nothing, nor did I
even get a bite. I was sitting in camp towards the evening when one of
the coolies rushed in to say that he had seen some elephants on the
other side of the river, a little way down, looking very much as if
they were going to cross the river. Barrakee was in camp. I took my
guns, and he, with two of his men and my gun-bearers, went out to look
for the elephants. We crept along the bank of the river, and on the
other side Barrakee pointed out two fine bull elephants; they were
standing amongst the dense jungle which bordered the river, evidently
undecided whether to cross or not. H. and Fisk were out shooting
partridges for our dinner, and just as we saw the elephants we heard
two shots. This was very unlucky, but H. had no idea that there were
elephants near. It must have startled them, as very shortly afterwards
we saw them crashing away through the forest. It was a very pretty
picture to see these huge animals standing amongst the thick trees and
jungle, the rays of the setting sun, at the time, just lighting up the
broad and sparkling river as it ran below us--the whole being a
thoroughly wild African scene, and one which any lover of sport would
have appreciated. I should say that whilst fishing that afternoon I
left a hand-line in charge of a native, who afterwards assured me,
when I asked him if he had had a bite, that some big fish had taken
hold of it and pulled him on to his knees; certainly one of his knees
was a little bit bruised by the stones. The thermometer here ranged
from 109° to 115° in the tent, in the middle of the day; so my readers
may imagine it was pretty hot.
_Feb. 18._--To-day Brou got the raft ready for launching, and a large
caravan of nearly four hundred people came across the river, most of
whom camped close by. One of our messengers, whom we had employed to
carry letters for us to the coast, had taken this opportunity of
joining the caravan in order to bring the letters down to us. Arrekel
Bey, the Governor of Massowah, had sent me some French newspapers, so
we were well posted up in all the news. The chief of the caravan had
been very kind to our coolie, who was named Givra Michael, and had
given him food during the journey. We sent for the chief and talked
some time with him: he told me he was taking his people, and cows, and
belongings, back to his home in Walkait, the country then being at
peace. There are very often feuds and disputes going on among the
petty chiefs, especially in this part of Abyssinia. I amused the
Abyssinian by showing him my guns and revolvers, and, for his
edification, fired at a mark with one of my revolvers: he was much
astonished at the rapidity with which the revolver went off. I made
him a present of a pocket-handkerchief and two hanks of beads, with
which he was very much delighted. I had with me at the time Rassam's
book, called 'British Mission to Abyssinia;' in the frontispiece of
the first volume is a picture of King Theodore, and this I showed to
the chief and most of his followers. They were intensely interested
with it, and said the likeness was very good. It was very amusing to
hear their remarks and to see the expression on their faces as the
picture was handed round. I went out fishing in the evening, but some
monster of the deep ran out about seventy yards of my line so fast
that I could scarcely hold it. I am rather better to-day, having taken
some opium.
_Feb. 19._--Brou came to me this morning to tell me that Barrakee was
suffering from diarrhœa, and begged I would give him a little
brandy and water. I also discovered that others of the servants were
suffering from the same complaint; indeed none of them looked very
well. I consulted with H., and it was agreed that we should move camp
to-night, there being a full moon at the time, which afforded plenty
of light to travel by. I launched the raft in the afternoon, and got
it safely over the rapids that we had forded, and moored it on the
left bank of the river, a little above the hippopotamus pool. I
thought at the time that perhaps a change up into the more bracing air
of the hills would do myself, as well as the rest of the party, some
good, and that we might before leaving the country return here; but my
wishes were never realized. That evening we dined early and left camp
about eight o'clock, having burned all our "dasses" (or leaf-houses),
which made a tremendous blaze, and the scene certainly was a wild one.
Before coming down to the Tackazzee I had presented all the servants
with a piece of red cloth, which they put round their heads, and by
the light of the blazing sticks they looked more like so many devils
than human beings. They were scantily clothed, and the red
handkerchiefs gave them a fierce and wild appearance. We crossed the
river, bathed in the light of a full tropical moon, then marched up
along the road that we had come by, and we pitched camp near some
water in the jungle at 10.45. I was a little better, but the ride up
from the river tired me a good deal.
_Feb. 20._--My complaint is about the same, but I do not suffer so
much pain from it. I took three doses of opium, but this medicine
makes one feel very weak. I amused myself in the afternoon learning an
Abyssinian game called Galanift, which is played in the following way:
twelve small holes are dug in the ground, six in a row opposite each
other; four pellets, or bullets, are put into each hole; A takes one
row, and B the other. They sit down opposite each other, and the
object of the game is to take the adversary's bullets by certain
moves, which are all made from left to right. It is something like the
game called Solitaire, but is very complicated, and requires the
exertion of your powers of mental arithmetic to understand it.