Waalia is a collection of villages, each placed upon the top of a hill, and inclosing, as in a circle, an extensive flat piece of ground about three miles over, on which a very well-frequented market is kept. The name is given it from a species of small pigeons[17], with yellow breasts and variegated backs, the fattest and best of all the pigeon kind. Waalia lies due N. W. from Gondar.
Having finished our dinner, or rather supper, about seven, for we made but one meal a-day, after taking care of our beasts, we entered into consultation what was next to be done. I told them, the first step we were to take was to send and call the Shum of one of the villages, and after him another, and if, knowing me to be the king's stranger, seeing the smallness of our number, and being informed that we were going to Tcherkin, to the house of Ayto Confu, their master, they did not tell us there were dangers on the road, we might be sure the intelligence we had received was void of foundation. "Sir, says one of the strangers that drove the asses, it is a lie. No man but Ayto Confu, not even Ayto Confu himself, could raise 500 men in this country; no not even 300, Pagans, Mahometans, and Christians altogether. Where is he to get his Pagans? unless he means his own Christian sort, who, indeed, are more Pagans than any thing else, and capable of every mischief; but there is not a Mahometan on this road that does not know who you are, and that you was Yasine's master, and gave him Ras el Feel. Stay here but a few days till I send to Ras el Feel, and to Tcherkin, and if you do not take the houses and wives, and all that these five hundred men have in the world from them, with the help you may find at Waalia, spit upon me for a liar, or my name is not Abdullah." "Abdullah, said I, you are a sensible fellow, though I did not know you was so well acquainted with me, nor do I wish that you speak of me in that manner publickly. But what convinces me of the truth of what you say is, that the man on foot had no more time but to say to me, in Arabic, while passing, that his companion on the mule was a liar, and that I should not be afraid, for there was no danger on the road, and that Ayto Confu would be at Tcherkin as soon as I; from which, and his saying just the contrary to you, I do believe the whole is a stratagem of the king."
All agreed in this. Hagi Ismael mentioned it as a proof of the worthlessness of Christians, that even their kings were as great liars as common men; and we had scarcely done with this consultation, and dispelled our fears, when word was brought to the tent, that the chiefs of two of the principal villages were at the door, desiring to be admitted, and had with them several servants loaded with provisions. They were immediately introduced, and they presented us with two goats, several jars of bouza, and a quantity of bread, which I divided among my retinue, now become half Christians and half Mahometans, neither of whom ate meat killed by the other.
After the first civilities were over, I asked the governor of Waalia all the questions that were needful about the state of the roads and the country, and whether the Shangalla ever made an attempt upon Tcherkin? They said, All was peace; that the people came and went to the market without being interrupted. They laughed at the question about the Shangalla. Ayto Confu, they said, sometimes went down and destroyed many of that people, and brought others away as slaves; but the Shangalla were not men to attack a place where there was a number of horse, nor to climb mountains to destroy houses well stored with fire-arms. Have you, said I, seen nobody pass by from Ayto Confu lately? About four or five days ago, answered he, a servant was here, with orders to have victuals ready for you; who also told us, that he would come himself in three or four days after. I heard also, that his servant Ammonios had gone round Nara to take possession of some villages the king had given Ozoro Esther, and that he had with him a number of horse and foot, and several Ozoros, going to Tcherkin, but they had gone the upper road, consequently had not come this way. Is there no danger, said I, in passing Dav-Dohha? Why, at Dav-Dohha, said he, there is danger, it is a bad place, nobody passes it on horseback; but I see your horses are shod with iron, which none in this country are; however, to avoid all danger, you had better lead your horses and mules, and walk on foot, it is not far.
I could not help bursting out into a fit of laughter at the fancied danger that attended us at Dav-Dohha; and, as I saw this disconcerted our informant, and that he thought he had said something wrong, I told him briefly what had passed at meeting with the two men upon the road. He laughed very heartily at this in his turn. "That man did not stop here, says he, and who he is I know not; but whoever he is, he is a liar, and a beast of the field. All the people of Dav-Dohha are our relations, and Ayto Confu's servants; if there had been any body to attack you, there would have been found here people to defend you. What signifies his ordering us to furnish you with victuals, if he was to suffer your throats to be cut before you came to eat them? I will answer for you between this and Tcherkin; after that, all is wilderness, and no man knows if he is to meet friend or foe."
I told him then what had happened to us at Gimbaar, at which he seemed exceedingly surprised. "These villages, says he, do not belong to Ayto Confu, but to his cousins, the sons of Basha Eusebius. They indeed died in rebellion, but our master has taken possession of them for the family, lest the king should give them away to a stranger. Some bad news must have arrived from Gondar; at any rate, if you are afraid, I will accompany you to-morrow past Dav-Dohha." We thanked him for the kind offer, but excused ourselves from accepting it, as we fully relied upon his intelligence; and having made him some trifling presents, about the value of what he brought, though in his eyes much more considerable, we took our leave, mutually satisfied with each other. From this I no longer doubted that the whole was a project of the king to terrify me, and make me return. What struck me, as most improbable of all, was the story of that lying wretch who said that Ayto Confu had sent a number of mules to carry away his furniture, and trusted the defence of his place to Abba Gimbaro, chief of the Baasa. For, first, I knew well it did not need many mules to carry away the furniture which Ayto Confu left at Tcherkin in time of war, and when he was not there; next, had he known that any person whatever, Shangalla or Christians, had intended to attack Tcherkin, he was not a man to fight by proxy or lieutenants; he would have been himself present to meet them, as to a feast, though he had been carried thither in a sick-bed.
On the 30th, at half past six in the morning we set out from Waalia; and, though we were perfectly cured of our apprehensions, the company all joined in desiring me to go along with them, and not before them. They wisely added, that, in a country like that, where there was no fear of God, I could not know what it might be in the power of the devil to do. I therefore hung my arms upon my horse, and, taking a gun in my hand, wandered among the trees by the road-side, in pursuit of the doves or pigeons. In a few hours I had shot several scores of them, especially on the banks of the Mai Lumi, or the River of Lemons. We came to it in about an hour from Waalia, and coasted it for some minutes, as it ran north-east parallel to our course.
A prodigious quantity of fruit loaded the branches of these trees even likely to break them; and these were in all stages of ripeness. Multitudes of blossoms covered the opposite part of the tree, and sent forth the most delicious odour possible. We provided ourselves amply with this fruit. The natives make no use of it, but we found it a great refreshment to us, both mixed with our water, and as sauce to our meat, of which we had now no great variety since our onions had failed us, and a supply of them was no longer to be procured.
At fourteen minutes past seven, continuing north-west, we crossed the river Mai Lumi, which here runs west; and, continuing still north-west, at eight o'clock we came to the mouth of the formidable pass, Dav-Dohha, which we entered with good countenance enough, having first rested five minutes to put ourselves in order, and we found our appetites failing us through excessive heat. The pass of Dav-Dohha is a very narrow defile, full of strata of rocks, like steps of stairs, but so high, that, without leaping, or being pulled up, no horse or mule can ascend. Moreover, the descent, though short, is very steep, and almost choked up by huge stones, which the torrents, after washing the earth from about them, had rolled down from the mountain above. Both sides of the defile are covered thick with wood and bushes, especially that detestable thorn the kantuffa, so justly reprobated in Abyssinia.
Having extricated ourselves successfully from this pass, our spirits were so elated, that we began to think our journey now at an end, not reflecting how many passes, full of real danger, were still before us. At three quarters past eight we came to Werkleva, a village of Mahometans. Above this, too, is Armatchiko, a famous hermitage, and around it huts inhabited by a number of monks. These, and their brethren of Magwena, are capital performers in all disorders of the state; all prophets and diviners, keeping up the spirit of riot, anarchy, and tumult, by their fanatical inventions and pretended visions.