"What sufficiently marked the voracity of these beasts, the hyænas, was, that the bodies of their dead companions, which we hauled a long way from us, and left there, were almost entirely eaten by the survivers the next morning; and I then observed, for the first time, that the hyæna of this country was a different species from those I had seen in Europe, which had been brought from Asia or America."
Bruce did not leave Addergey till near ten o'clock in the morning of the 4th of February. On reaching the river he saw the shum coming from the right, with nine horsemen and fourteen or fifteen beggarly footmen. The shum, preceded by a well-dressed young man carrying his gun, had only a whip in his own hand; the rest had lances, but none of the horsemen had shields. Bruce and his party had no doubt that these people were coming against him, and that there were others ahead ready to join them, for it was clear that nine horses would not venture to do anything.
"Our people," says Bruce, "were now all on foot, and the Moors drove the beasts before them. I got immediately upon horseback, when they were then about five hundred yards below, or scarcely so much. As soon as they observed us drive our beasts into the river, one of their horsemen came galloping up, while the others continued at a smart walk. When the horseman was within twenty yards' distance of me, I called upon him to stop, and, as he valued his life, not to approach nearer. On this he made no difficulty to obey, but seemed rather inclined to turn back. As I saw the baggage all laid on the ground, at the foot of a small round hill, upon the gentle ascent of which my servants all stood armed, I turned about my horse, and with Yasine, who was by my side, began to cross the river. The horseman upon this again advanced; again I cried to him to stop. He then pointed behind him and said, 'The Shum!' I desired him peremptorily to stop, or I would fire upon which he turned round, and the others joining him, they held a minute's counsel together, and came all forward to the river, where they paused a moment, as if counting our number, and then began to enter the stream. Yasine now cried to them in Amharic, as I had done before in Tigré, desiring them, as they valued their lives, to come no nearer. They stopped, a sign of no great resolution; and, after some altercation, it was agreed that the shum, and his son with the gun, should pass the river.
"The shum complained violently that we had left Addergey without his leave, and now we were attacking him in his own government upon the high road. 'A pretty situation,' said I, 'was ours at Addergey, where the shum left the king's stranger no other alternative but dying with hunger or being eaten by the hyæna. Now, pray, shum, tell me what is your business with me; and why have you followed me beyond your government, which is bounded by that river?' He said 'that I had stolen away privately without paying custom.' 'I am no merchant,' replied I; 'I am the king's guest, and pay no custom; but, as far as a piece of red Surat cloth will content you, I will give it you, and we shall part friends.'
"I now gave orders to my people to load the mules. At hearing this, the shum made a signal for his company to cross; but Yasine, who was opposite to them, again ordered them to stop. 'Shum,' said I, 'you intend to follow us, apparently with a design to do us some harm. There is a piece of ordnance,' continued I, showing him a large blunderbuss, 'a cannon that will sweep fifty such fellows as you to eternity in a moment.'
"The conversation lasted about five minutes; and our baggage was now on the way, when the shum said he would make a proposal: since I had no merchandise, and was going to Ras Michael, he would accept of the red cloth, provided we swore to make no complaint of him at Gondar, nor speak of what had happened at Debra Toon; while he likewise would swear, after having joined his servants, that he would not again pass that river. Peace was concluded upon these terms. I gave him a piece of red Surat cotton cloth, and added some cohol, incense, and beads for his wives."
The mountain-range of Hauza was about eight miles distant, and had a very romantic appearance. At one o'clock Bruce alighted about half way between the mountain called Debra Toon and the village of that name. Still farther to the northwest is a desert, hilly district, called Adebarea, the country of the slaves, as being in the neighbourhood of the Shangalla—the whole waste and uninhabited.
The mountains of Waldubba, resembling those of Adebarea, were about four or five miles northward of Waldubba, which signifies the valley of the monks, who, for the sake of penance and mortification, had retired to this unwholesome, hot, and dangerous country. It is also a retreat for great men in disgrace or in disgust. They shave their hair, put on a cowl like the monks, renounce the world, and take vows of solitude and celibacy; but, in process of time, these holy chrysalises return like butterflies to the world, leaving their outward skin, the cowl and sackcloth, in Waldubba.
These monks are held in great veneration. Many believe that they have gifts of prophecy and of working miracles, and they are very active instruments in stirring up the people in times of trouble.
Violent fevers perpetually reign there. The inhabitants are of the colour of a corpse; and their neighbours the Shangalla, by constant inroads, destroy many of them, though lately they have been stopped, as they say, by the prayers of the monks, or, rather, by the smallpox, which has greatly reduced their strength and number, and exterminated to a man whole tribes of them.