rock as to give the effect of that agency in northern climes. The country is populous, villages being sprinkled in pretty close proximity over the country, and the ground kept clear of wood and jungle. At Mendi, forty-six hours' marching from the Didesa, we were at the frontier settlement of Abyssinia, at the edge of the next great ledge or terrace overlooking the Dabus valley and the watershed of the Blue Nile.

The journey from Addis Abbeba lay through the land of the Gallas, and it may not be amiss to take a cursory glance at their history. As usually happens, the name they give themselves is not that known to the Abyssinian and Arab Gallas. They call themselves Ilmormo, or sons of Orma, a sort of eponymous hero, who had eight sons-Borana, Tolama, Liban, Gudru, Jemma, Nonno, Hurru, and Amurru-from which descend the different Galla tribes. The word Galla itself means "emigrants" (cp. Agazi), and their natural traditions bring them from a great sea towards the tenth century. At any rate, they made their appearance on the Abyssinian frontiers about 1542. At first they were without horses and a pastoral race; when, however, they settled on the fertile borderland of Abyssinia they developed agricultural tastes, and became famous breeders of horses, and their horsemen formed an irregular cavalry that inflicted many reverses on their Ethiopian conquerors. The tribes used to elect in turn a president," Abba-Buku," for a term of eight years; but at present, apparently, they have entirely submitted in the region within effective occupation of Abyssinian troops to local governors (who are, however, often chiefs of their own race), and Abyssinian headmen of villages representing the king, called Shums. Their language belongs to the proto-Semitic branch, and allied to that of the Somali and Danakil, and is generally divided into five dialects: (1) That of the east and north of Shoa, the Wollo, etc.; (2) Ittudia on the Somali side, and spoken by the Ittus, Arussi, Karains, and Alabas; (3) the Gojob, that spoken by those on the south, Enarea Gudru, Kucha, and Mecha, where our journey lay; (4) the Shoan dialect; and (5) the Equatorial. Their religion has been the subject of many investigations, and may be summed up as a belief in a supreme nebulous being, Wak, and below him two divinities, masculine and feminine, Aglieh and Atatieb.

The physical type varies very much according to the ground races the Gallas have been brought in contact with. In the neighbourhood of Abyssinia they are lighter coloured than the Abyssinians, and are of finer build, with more regular features. On the south such types as the Arussi are darker, and more approach the Somali type. Coming to the western border, i.e. Leka Gallas, beyond Bilo, there appears a lightcoloured type, with mild brown eyes, fine delicately chiselled features, thin lips, broad flat foreheads, and straight profiles, strongly recalling an Indian type; a fact that, taken in conjunction with their national

traditions and the religious characteristics of South India and Ceylon, especially in the matter of tree and serpent worship, may point to a conquering people entering the east coast and assimilating with the native races. This particular type seems to correspond to that of Enarea (Narea of the Portuguese), and described by Bruce and others. Narea may have been the position where they kept themselves more isolated, and retained in consequence their racial characteristics in comparative purity.

The frontier of a country, whether coming in or going out, is generally where the traveller's troubles begin, and we were destined

to be no exception to the rule. The governor, Dejasmach Damisi, had just conducted a campaign, i.e. a raid through this portion of the country of the Beni Shongul, and in view of his being still at the capital Abderrahman, the king had given instructions to the local headman at Gori to hand us over to him, Damisi being enjoined to facilitate our journey to the Blue Nile. Damisi, however, had left Abderrahman and made a wide sweep through the Dinka country and the Baro to the south. No interpretation of the spirit of a document is ever, of course, possible to a subordinate. He would take us on a wild-goose chase to Damisi, but we must not go on without special permission to AbderrahThere was no help for it but to send a mounted messenger back to Addis Abbeba, and get special and detailed permission suitable under the

man.

altered circumstances. The permit, however, to faire la chasse admitted luckily of no misinterpretation, and we were relieved to find that elephants and other game were plentiful in the valley of the Dabus which lay below the hills of Mendi, and has formed for a long time the acknowledged and natural frontier between Gallaland (now Abyssinia) and the Shankalla or negroid races of the great Nile basin.

The very next day we organized a shooting-party, and started off towards the Dabus valley, where elephants were reported, accompanied

by the obstructive shum, a pock-marked ruffian, of repulsive personal habits and worse manners, and an escort of equally unattractive ragamuffins. We certainly saw many old elephant paths, but the tracks showed that they were mostly made during the rains, when it is probable the animals come up into the higher ground from the south-west Dinka country, where the gun has not yet penetrated in large numbers, and where it is well known that they still roam in large herds. Several long and fruitless days were spent in trudging over innumerable tracks in stifling bamboo jungles, but no fresh ones appeared until one day a

party of our caravan disturbed, and were much disturbed by, a herd of about twenty. Word was brought to us, and though we took up the tracks at once, they had too good a start, and getting another fright they got away far enough to make pursuit hopeless for that day. The next day proved again a blank, but the next, when out by myself, I was surprised at lunch by a very big "rogue" sauntering along with an easy roll through the bamboo not 250 yards off. He got our wind enough to be startled out of his quiet stroll into a quick walk, and gave us a pretty hot run to get up to him. I got a good shot behind the shoulder, not being able to see his head as he stood behind a clump of bamboo. He turned away evidently hard hit, and gave me another chance about

200 yards further on, when he went on and hid in a very dark jungle of young growing bamboo. Out of this he suddenly turned and charged, but instead of charging home he swerved away at about 30 yards and gave me a good side shot, which brought him up standing, and after making an attempt to turn at me, he rolled over on his side. He proved to be a very large specimen, 11 feet 11 inches* measured to the top of the shoulder; this is bigger by 10 inches than any recorded, so far as I have been able to find out, except one shot by Mr. Foa, and given in his late publication, After Big Game in Central Africa,' at

This measurement was taken lying down; the compression of the foot in a standing posture would reduce this by 3 to 4 inches.

No. II. FEBRUARY, 1900.]

I

12 feet 2 inches. The next day both of us went out, and Lord Lovat took on a fine active female with a good shot between the eye and ear. It seemed to be a little low, for, after staggering for a second, she went off like an engine into the bamboo. We followed her up, and found her lying in wait in thick scrub with three or four others. Suddenly the bamboo parted like grass, and out she rushed like a torpedo, charging right home. Lord Lovat waited steadily till within five yards, and gave her a good one almost exactly on her forehead over the juncture of the trunk. This swung her round as quick as a teetotum, and I, standing close by, got a shot into her as she turned. This considerably diminished her ardour, and after getting away about

200 yards, we found her very sick, standing motionless, and Lord Lovat gave her the coup de grâce.

The next day I left for the standing camp, it being imperative to get supplies sufficient to carry us right to Famaka, the country in front having been absolutely laid waste, and the people reduced to semistarvation by the two Abyssinian expeditions of last year and this. Such a clearance had been made of the resources of the people that a regular caravan had to be organized to scour the country for ten days to get enough wheat and sheep, etc., for our caravan, and an estimated ten to fourteen days' march and halts. In the interim, finding from the head of the Abyssinian frontier police, as I may call them, that the Blue Nile, or Abai as the Abyssinians call it, was at no great distance and a