On Boxing Day we entered rising country with features different from those seen in the mimosa forest.
The sides of the rocky hills have been seamed with ravines by the rains. Nearly all the trees are still of the same order, but certain species have broader leaves, and their appearance resembles that of the timber found in the temperate zones. However, I saw no specimen of the varieties common in England. I heard one songbird in this district, the chaffinch. Water-wagtails abound.
As usual, we made an excursion ahead of the baggage with guns and rifles. The game birds are sand-grouse and partridges, and we shot a brace of the latter. Crawley brought down an ariel buck, which was in good condition. This was our first venison. The shot caused intense excitement in our convoy, and the guides and boys all made a rush for the beast to cut its throat before it died of the bullet wound. It had been hit in the neck.
We rested in a ravine called Otruk—a lovely wooded gorge in which a small stream was flowing. A little further down the course the water disappeared in the sand. Here, for the first time, I saw a troop of baboons. No doubt they inhabit caves and clefts in the surrounding rocks. Some were fully of human stature. Partridges and guinea-fowl were numerous here, and beyond question the rivulet in the khor attracts animals of every kind existing in the district. It was the first running water we had seen since we left the Blue Nile. We rested until two o’clock, and then rode on towards Gallabat.
When we were half an hour’s journey distant from the town, we were met by Mr. Saville, the Inspector, who accompanied us to our quarters.
CHAPTER IV
Politically, Gallabat is a place of much importance, as the principal station on the frontier between Abyssinia and the Anglo-Egyptian dominions. It is the terminus of the telegraph line whose course we had followed along a part of our route, and I shall presently explain why I think it would be difficult to carry the wire from this point into Menelek’s country.
The town consists of two main thoroughfares and of the scattered “tokhuls” which form the villages throughout Abyssinia and the Eastern Soudan. It contains about eight hundred inhabitants. Formerly, I have no doubt, there was a larger population, but this place, like all other trading centres in the land, suffered severely in the days of the Dervish ascendency. The “shops,” which abut upon the main roads, are hovels in a row under a heavily thatched roof, and are separated by rough and ragged partitions of cane thatch. They are “business premises” only, and the proprietor and his family dwell elsewhere. A considerable trade is carried on by Abyssinians who come to Gallabat to sell coffee; sometimes they have a leopard’s skin or other hunter’s trophy to barter in addition. They exchange their goods chiefly for cotton, which is used in the making of shamas and other garments worn in Abyssinia. Sir S. Baker mentions a commerce in bees’-wax and hides, but I saw no evidence of it in Gallabat, and I think it must have declined.
The traffic in coffee proceeds regularly during the dry season, but ceases, of course, when the rains make the neighbouring Abyssinian hill-country impassable. A square, in which there are booths, is set apart for the use of the Abyssinian traders. In the middle of it are the large scales in which the coffee is weighed, and I was much interested to learn that not only the amount of the import duty payable to the Egyptian Customs, but also the sum charged as export duty by the Abyssinian Government, was here determined by the weight of the bundles. The latter tax is retained at the time in the hands of the Anglo-Egyptian officials, and is afterwards remitted by them to Menelek’s Revenue Department. I need hardly add that this is a recent arrangement, and it seems to show that British influence in the Soudan has inspired confidence at Addis Abiba.