[96]Whips made of thongs of hippopotamus hide, which serves both for lash and handle.
[97]This is a military title, and means “Commander of Advance Guard.” (A. Wylde, “Modern Abyssinia,” p. 495).
[98]We saw few bananas and none of these pigs in 1903.
[99]“Mittheilungen der Afrikanischen Gesellschaft in Deutschland,” 1881, vol. iii. pp. 30, 31.
[100]“Wanderings among the Falashas,” p. 13.
[101]“The Anatomy of Vertebrated Animals,” p. 367. This little animal is the coney of the Scriptures.
[102]Since we were by the lakeside a decree has been issued that the hippos, for their misdeeds in destroying crops and overturning tankoas, are to be treated as vermin, and shot whenever opportunity arises; so I fear that these ancient “riparian owners” will soon disappear from their pleasant and immemorial haunts.
[103]We found these shells and oysters in all the rivers to which our journey brought us. They are especially abundant in the shallow pools of the Atbara.
[104]I have already said that the island of Dek seems to me to have been chiefly formed by siltage.
[105]“Mittheilungen der Afrikanischen Gesellschaft in Deutschland,” 1881, vol. iii. p. 28. The following general description of the lake district embodied by Mr. Dupuis in his Report on the Expedition, and published in Sir W. Garstin’s Despatch already cited (Ed. 2165, 1904, p. 215), is terse and interesting: