The surprise and sight of his own danger made Woldo repeat some ejaculation to himself in Galla. My servants, who were waiting the success of the scheme, cried, The Galla! the Galla! and Strates, who thought the whole army of wild Galla had surrounded the house, fell upon his face, calling Maruni! Maruni!—Spare me! spare me!—I was in a profound sleep when roused by the noise of the roof, the falling of the man, and the cry of Galla! Galla! I started up, and laid hold of a musket loaded with slugs, a bayonet at the end of it, and ran to the door, when the first thing I saw was Woldo examining his hurts, or burns, but without any arms. A laugh from without made me directly suppose what it was, and I was presently fully satisfied by the figure Strates and Woldo made, covered with dirt and dust from the roof; but, while they were entertaining themselves with this foolish trick, the thatch that had fallen upon the fire began to flame, and it was with the utmost difficulty we extinguished it, otherwise the whole village might have been burnt down.—I heard distinctly the noise of the cataract all this night.
CHAP. XII.
Leave Goutto—Mountains of the Moon—Roguery of Woldo our Guide—Arrive at the Source of the Nile.
It was the 3d of November, at eight o’clock in the morning, that we left the village of Goutto, and continued, for the first part of the day, through a plain country full of acacia-trees, and a few of other sorts; but they were all pollards, that is, stunted, by having their tops cut off when young, so that they bore now nothing but small twigs, or branches; these, too, seemed to have been lopped yearly. As there appeared no doubt that this had been done purposely, and for use, I asked, and was informed, that we were now in the honey country, and that these twigs were for making large baskets, which they hung upon trees at the sides of their houses, like bird-cages, for the bees to make their honey in them during the dry months; all the houses we passed afterwards, and the trees near them, were furnished with these baskets, having numerous hives of bees at work in them; the people themselves seemed not to heed them, but they were an excessive plague to us by their stings during the day, so that it was only when we were out in the fields, or at night in the house, that we were free from this inconvenience.
The high mountain of Berfa now bore south from us about ten miles distant; it resembles, in shape, a gunner’s wedge, and towers up to the very clouds amidst the lesser mountains of the Agow. Sacala is south south-east. The country of the Agows extends from Berfa on the south to the point of due west, in form of an amphitheatre, formed all round by mountains, of which that of Banja lies south south-west about nine miles off. The country of the Shangalla, beyond the Agows, lies west north-west. From this point all the territory of Goutto is full of villages, in which the fathers, sons, and grandsons live together; each degree, indeed, in a separate house, but near or touching each other, as in Maitsha, so that every village consists of one family.
At three quarters past eight we crossed a small, but clear river, called Dee-ohha, or the River Dee. It is singular to observe the agreement of names of rivers in different parts of the world, that have never had communication together. The Dee is a river in the north of Scotland. The Dee runs through Cheshire likewise in England; and Dee is a river here in Abyssinia. Kelti is the name of a river in Monteith; Kelti, too, we found in Maitsha. Arno is a well-known river in Tuscany; and we found another Arno, below Emfras, falling into the lake Tzana. Not one of these rivers, as far as I could observe, resemble each other in any one circumstance, nor have they a meaning or signification in any one language I know.
The church of Abbo is a quarter of a mile to our right, and the church of Eion Mariam bears east by south half a mile. We resumed our journey at half past nine, and, after advancing a few minutes, we came in light of the ever-memorable field of Fagitta. At a quarter past ten we were pointing to the south-east, the two great clans of the Agow, Zeegam and Dengui, being to the south-west; the remarkable mountain Davenanza is about eight miles off, bearing south-east by south, and the course of the Nile is east and west. Eastward still from this is the high mountain of Adama, one of the ridges of Amid Amid, which form the entrance of a narrow valley on the east side, as the mountains of Litchambara do on the west. In this valley runs the large river Jemma, rising in the mountains, which, after passing thro’ part of Maitsha, falls below into the Nile. The mountains from this begin to rise high, whereas at Samseen they are very low and inconsiderable. Adama is about ten miles from our present situation, which is also famous for a battle fought by Fasil’s father, while governor of Damot, against the people of Maitsha, in which they were totally defeated.
We now descended into a large plain full of marshes, bounded on the west by the Nile, and at ten and three quarters we crossed the small river Diwa, which comes from the east and runs to the westward: though not very broad, it was by much the deepest river we had passed; the banks of earth being perpendicular and infirm, and the bottom foul and clayey, we were obliged to dismount ourselves, unload the mules, and carry our baggage over. This was a troublesome operation, though we succeeded at last. I often regretted to Woldo, that he could not here find some of the good people like the Agows at the ford of the Nile; but he shook his head, saying, These are another sort of stuff; we may be very thankful if they let us pass ourselves: in the flat country I do not wish to meet one man on this side the mountain Aformasha.
In this plain, the Nile winds more in the space of four miles than, I believe, any river in the world; it makes above a hundred turns in that distance, one of which advances so abruptly into the plain that we concluded we must pass it, and were preparing accordingly, when we saw it make as sharp a turn to the right, and run far on in a contrary direction, as if we were never to have met it again: the Nile is not here above 20 feet broad, and is nowhere above a foot deep. The church of Yasous was above three quarters of a mile to the west.
At one o’clock we ascended a ridge of low hills which terminates this plain to the south. The mountains behind them are called Attata; they are covered thick with brushwood, and are cut through with gullies and beds of torrents. At half past one we were continuing S. E.; in a few minutes after we passed a clear but small stream, called Minch, which signifies the Fountain. At two o’clock we arrived at the top of the mountain of Attata, and from this discovered the river Abola coming from the S. S. E. and in a few minutes passed another small river called Giddili, which loses itself immediately in a turn, or elbow, which the river Abola makes here below. At half past two we descended the mountain of Attata, and immediately at the foot of it crossed a small river of the same name, which terminates the territory of Attata; here, to the south, it is indeed narrow, but very difficult to pass by reason of its muddy bottom. The sun all along the plain of Goutto had been very hot till now, and here so excessively, that it quite overcame us: what was worse, Woldo declared himself so ill, that he doubted if he could go any farther, but believed he should die at the next village. Though I knew too much of the matter to think him in any danger from real disease, I saw easily that he was infected with a counterfeit one, which I did not doubt was to give me as much trouble as a real one would have done.