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.