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"The Arabs were much afraid of crocodiles this night, as it was
perfectly dark when we had completed our preparations, and they
feared that the snmell of so large a quantity of raw flesh, more
especially the hide of the giraffe, which must be towed, would
attract these beasts to the party; accordingly I fired several
shots to alarm them, and the men plunged into the river, amidst
the usual yelling of the women on the opposite side. Fires had
been lighted to direct us, and all passed safely across.

"The sport upon the Abyssinian side of the river had been most
satisfactory, and I resolved upon the first opportunity to change
my quarters, and to form an encampment upon that bank of the
Atbara until the proper season should arrive for travelling. I
had killed three giraffes and two tetel in only two excursions.
Florian, who was ill, had not been able to accompany me; although
he had been shooting in this neighbourhood for two years he had
never killed a giraffe. This want of success was owing to the
inferiority of his weapons, that were not adapted to correct
shooting at a range exceeding a hundred yards.

"On the following morning about fifty Arabs crossed the river
with the intention of bringing the flesh of the giraffe, but they
returned crestfallen in the evening, as again the lions and
hyaenas had been before them, and nothing was left. I therefore
resolved not to shoot again until I should be settled in my new
camp on the other side of the river, as it was a wasteful
expenditure of these beautiful animals unless the flesh could be
preserved.

"The rainy season was drawing to a close, and I longed to quit
the dulness of Sofi.

"September 12.--The river has fallen nearly eighteen feet, as the
amount of rain has much decreased during the last week. Immense
crocodiles are now to be seen daily, basking upon the muddy
banks. One monster in particular, who is well known to the Arabs
as having devoured a woman a few months ago, invariably sleeps
upon a small island up the river.

"This evening I counted seven elephants on the east side of the
river on the table lands.

"To-day the Arabs kept one of their holy feasts; accordingly, a
sheep was slaughtered as a sacrifice, with an accompaniment of
music and singing, i.e. howling to several guitars.

"The Arab system of an offering is peculiar. Should a friend be
dangerously ill, or rain be demanded, or should any calamity
befall them, they slaughter an ox if they possess it, or a sheep
or goat in the absence of a larger animal, but the owner of the
beast SELLS the meat in small portions to the assembled party,
and the whole affair of sacrifice resolves itself into a feast;
thus having filled thenmselves with good meat, they feel
satisfied that they have made a religious sacrifice, and they
expect the beneficial results. The guitar music and singing that
attend the occasion are simply abominable. Music, although
beloved like dancing by both the savage and civilized, varies in
character according to the civilization of the race; that which
is agreeable to the uneducated ear is discord to the refined
nerves of the educated. The uutuned ear of the savage can no more
enjoy the tones of civilized music than his palate would relish
the elaborate dishes of a French chef de cuisine. As the stomach
of the Arab prefers the raw meat and reeking liver taken hot from
the animal, so does his ear prefer his equally coarse and
discordant music to all other. The guitar most common is made of
either the shell of a large gourd, or that of a turtle; over this
is stretched an untanned skin, that of a large fish being
preferred; through this two sticks are fixed about two feet three
inches in length; the ends of these are fastened to a cross piece
upon which are secured the strings; these are stretched over a
bridge similar to those of a violin, and are either tightened or
relaxed by rings of waxed rag fastened upon the cross
piece--these rings are turned by the hand, and retain their
position in spite of the strain upon the strings. Nothing
delights an Arab more than to sit idly in his hut and strum this
wretched instrument from morning until night."

I was thoroughly tired of Sofi, and I determined to move my party
across the river to camp on the uninhabited side; the rains had
almost ceased, therefore we should be able to live in the tent at
night, and to form a shady nook beneath some mimosas by day;
accordingly we busily prepared for a move.

CHAPTER IX.

FORM A RAFT WITH THE SPONGING BATH.

ON the 15th September the entire male population of Sofi turned
out to assist us in crossing the river, as I had promised them a
certain sum should the move be effected without the loss or
destruction of baggage. I had arranged a very superior raft to
that I had formerly used, as I now had eight inflated skins
attached to the bedstead, upon which I lashed our large circular
sponging bath, which, being three feet eight inches in diameter,
and of the best description, would be perfectly safe for my wife,
and dry and commodious for the luggage. In a very short time the
whole of our effects were carried to the water's edge, and the
passage of the river commenced. The rifles were the first to
cross with Bacheet, while the water-tight iron box that contained
the gunpowder was towed like a pinnace behind the raft. Four
hippopotami hunters were harnessed as tug steamers, while a
change of swimmers waited to relieve them every alternate voyage.
The raft answered admirably, and would easily support about three
hundred pounds. The power of flotation of the sponging bath alone
I had proved would support a hundred and ninety pounds, thus the
only danger in crossing was the chance of a crocodile making a
dash either at the inflated skins in mistake for the body of a
man, or at the swimmers themselves. All the usual necessaries
were safely transported, with the tents and personal baggage,
before I crossed myself, with a number of Arabs. We quickly
cleared the grass from the hard pebbly soil of a beautiful
plateau on the summit of a craggy sandstone cliff, about eighty
feet above the river; here we pitched the tents, close to some
mimosas of dense foliage, and all being in order, I went down to
the river to receive the next arrival. My wife now came across
the ferry, and so perfectly had this means of transport
succeeded, that by the evening, the whole of our stores and
baggage had been delivered without the slightest damage, with the
exception of a very heavy load of corn, that had caused the
sponging bath to ship a sea during a strong squall of wind. The
only person who had shown the least nervousness in trusting his
precious body to my ferry-boat was Mahomet the dragoman, who,
having been simply accustomed to the grand vessels of the Nile,
was not prepared to risk himself in a voyage across the Atbara in
a sponging bath. He put off the desperate attempt until the last
moment, when every other person of my party had crossed; I
believe he hoped that a wreck would take place before his turn
should arrive, and thus spare him the painful necessity, but when
at length the awful moment arrived, he was assisted carefully
imito the bath by his servant Achmet and a number of Arabs, all
of whom were delighted at his imbecility. Perched nervously in
the centre of the bath, and holding on tight by either side, he
was towed across with his travelling bag of clothes, while Achmet
remained in charge of his best clothes and sundry other personal
effects, that were to form the last cargo across the ferry. It
appeared that Achmet, the dearly beloved and affectionate
relative of Mahomet, who had engaged to serve him for simple love
instead of money, was suddenly tempted by Satan, and seeing that
Mahomet and the entire party were divided from him and the
property in his charge, by a river two hundred yards wide, about
forty feet deep, with a powerful current, he made up his mind to
bolt with the valuables; therefore while Mahomet, in a nervous
state in the ferry-bath, was being towed towards the east, Achmet
turned in another direction and fled towards the west. Mahomet
having been much frightened by the nautical effort he had been
forced to make, was in an exceedingly bad temper upon the arrival
on the opposite bank, and having at length succeeded in climbing
up the steep ascent, in shoes that were about four sizes too
large for him, he arrived on the lofty plateau of our camp, and
doubtless would like ourselves have been charmed with the view of
the noble river rushing between the cliffs of white sandstone,
had he only seen Achmet his fond relative with his effects on the
opposite bank. Mahomet strained his eyes, but the blank was no
optical delusion; neither Achmet nor his effects were there. The
Arabs, who hated the unfortunate Mahomet for his general
overbearing conduct, now comforted him with the suggestion that
Achmet had run away, and that his only chance was to re-cross the
river and give chase. Mahomet would not have ventured upon
another voyage to the other side and back again, for the world,
and as to giving chase in boots (highlows) four sizes too big,
and without strings, that would have been as absurd as to employ
a donkey to catch a horse. Mahomet could do nothing but rush
frantically to the very edge of the cliff, and scream and
gesticulate to a crowd of Arab women who had passed the day
beneath the shady trees by the Faky's grave, watching our passage
of the Atbara. Beating his own head and tearing his hair were
always the safety valves of Mahomet's rage, but as hair is not of
that mushroom growth that reappears in a night, he had patches
upon his cranium as bald as a pumpkin shell, from the constant
plucking, attendant upon losses of temper; he now not only tore
a few extra locks from his head, but he shouted out a tirade of
abuse towards the far-distant Achmet, calling him a "son of a
dog," cursing his father, and paying a few compliments to the
memory of his mother, which if only half were founded upon fact
were sad blots upon the morality of the family to which Mahomet
himself belonged, through his close relationship to Achmet, whom
he had declared to be his mother's brother's cousin's sister's
mother's son.

A heavy shower of rain fell shortly after our camp was completed,
when fortunately the baggage was under cover; this proved to be
the last rain of the season, and from that moment the burning sun
ruled the sodden country, and rapidly dried up not only the soil
but all vegetation. The grass within a few days of the cessation
of the rain assumed a tinge of yellow, and by the end of October
there was not a green spot to relieve the eye from the golden
blaze of the landscape, except the patches of grass and reeds
that sprang from the mud banks of the retiring river. The climate
was exceedingly unhealthy, but we were fortunately exceptions to
the general rule, and although the inhabitants of Sofi were all
sufferers, our camp had no invalids, with the exception of
Mahomet, who had upon one occasion so gorged himself with
half-putrid fish, that he nearly died in consequence. It would be
impossible to commence our explorations in the Base until the
grass should be sufficiently dry to burn; there were two
varieties: that upon the slopes and hollows of the stony soil of
the Atbara valley had been a pest ever since it had ripened; as
the head formed three barbed darts, these detached themselves
from the plant with such facility, that the slightest touch was
sufficient to dislodge them; they immediately pierced the
clothes, from which they could not be withdrawn, as the barbed
heads broke off and remained. It was simply impossible to walk in
this grass as it became ripe, without special protection; I
accordingly tanned some gazelle skins, with which my wife
constructed stocking gaiters, to be drawn over the foot and tied
above and below the knee; thus fortified I could defy the grass,
and indulge in shooting and exploring the neighbourhood until the
season should arrive for firing the country. The high grass upon
the table lands, although yellow, would not be sufficiently
inflammable until the end of November.

The numerous watercourses that drained the table lands during the
rainy season were now dry. No sooner had the grass turned yellow,
than the pest of the country, the seroot fly, disappeared; thus
the presence of this insect may be dated from about 10th July to
10th October. As the fly vanished, the giraffes also left the
neighbourhood. By a few days' exploration, I found that the point
of land from the junction of the Settite river with the Atbara,
formed a narrow peninsula which was no wider than eight miles
across from our encampment: thus the herds of game retreating
from the south before the attacks of the seroot, found themselves
driven into a cut-de-sac upon the strip of land between the broad
and deep rivers the Settite and Atbara, which in the rainy season
they dared not cross. All this country being uninhabited, there
were several varieties of game at all seasons, but the three
rainy months insure a good supply of elephants and giraffes;
these retreat about thirty miles farther south, when permitted by
the cessation of the flies to return to their favourite haunts.

My camp was in a very commanding position, as it was protected in
front by the Atbara, and on the left by a perpendicular ravine
about eighty feet deep, at the bottom of which flowed the rivulet
called by the Arabs the "Till;" this joined the river immediately
below our plateau. On our right was a steep and rugged incline
covered with rocks of the whitest sandstone, through which ran
veins of rich iron ore from four to five feet in width. I found
a considerable quantity of fossil wood in the sandstone, and I
had previously discovered on the Sofi side of the river, the
fossil stem of a tree about twelve feet long; the grain appeared
to be exceedingly close, but I could not determine the class to
which the tree had belonged.

As the Atbara had fallen to the level of the small tributary, the
Till, that stream was nearly exhausted, and the fish that
inhabited its deep and shady waters during the rainy season were
now fast retiring to the parent river. At the mouth of the stream
were a number of rocks, that, as the water of the Atbara
retreated, daily increased in size; these were evidently blocks
that had been detached from the cliffs that walled in the Till.
As we were now entirely dependent upon the rod and the rifle for
the support of our party, I determined to try for a fish, as I
felt quite certain that some big fellows in the main river would
be waiting to receive the small fry that were hurrying away from
the exhausted waters of the Till.

I had a good supply of tackle, and I chose a beautifully straight
and tapering bamboo that had been brought down by the river
floods. I cut off the large brass ring from a game-bag, which I
lashed to the end of my rod; and having well secured my largest
winch, that carried upwards of 200 yards of the strongest line,
I arranged to fish with a live bait upon a set of treble hooks.
In one of the rocks at the water's edge was a circular hole about
three feet in diameter and five or six feet deep; this appeared
like an artificial well, but it was simply the effect of natural
boring by the joint exertions of the strong current conmbined
with hard sand and gravel. This had perhaps years ago settled in
some slight hollow in the rock, and had gradually worked out a
deep well by perpetual revolutions. I emptied this natural bait
box of its contents of sand and rounded pebbles, and having
thoroughly cleaned and supplied it with fresh water, I caught a
large number of excellent baits by emptying a hole in the Till;
these I consigned to my aquarium. The baits were of various
kinds: some were small "boulti" (a species of perch), but the
greater number were young fish of the Silurus species; these were
excellent, as they were exceedingly tough in the skin, and so
hardy in constitution, that they rather enjoyed the fun of
fishing. I chose a little fellow about four inches in length to
begin with, and I delicately inserted the hook under the back
fin. Gently dropping my alluring and lively little friend in a
deep channel between the rocks and the mouth of the Till, I
watched my large float with great interest, as, carried by the
stream, it swept past the corner of a large rock into the open
river; that corner was the very place where, if I had been a big
fish, I should have concealed myself for a sudden rush upon an
unwary youngster. The large green float sailed leisurely along,
simply indicating, by its uneasy movement, that the bait was
playing; and now it passed the point of the rock and hurried
round the corner in the sharper current towards the open river.
Off it went!--Down dipped the tip of the rod, with a rush so
sudden that the line caught somewhere, I don't know where, and
broke!

"Well, that was a monster!" I exclaimed, as I recovered my
inglorious line; fortunately the float was not lost, as the hooks
had been carried away at the fastening to the main line; a few
yards of this I cut off, as it had partially lost its strength
from frequent immersion.

I replaced the lost hooks by a still larger set, with the
stoutest gimp and swivels, and once more I tried my fortune with
a bait exactly resembling the first. In a short time I had a
brisk run, and quickly landed a fish of about twelve pounds: this
was a species known by the Arabs as the "bayard;" it has a
blackish green back, the brightest silver sides and belly, with
very peculiar back fins, that nearest to the tail being a simple
piece of flesh free from rays. This fish has four long barbules
in the upper jaw, and two in the lower: the air-bladder, when
dried, forms a superior quality of isinglass, and the flesh of
this fish is excellent. I have frequently seen the bayard sixty
or seventy pounds' weight, therefore I was not proud of my catch,
and I recommenced fishing. Nothing large could be tempted, and I
only succeeded in landing two others of the same kind, one of
about nine pounds, the smaller about six. I resolved upon my next
trial to use a much larger bait, and I returned to camp with my
fish for dinner.

The life at our new camp was charmingly independent; we were upon
Abyssinian territory; but, as the country was uninhabited, we
considered it as our own. I had previously arranged with the
sheik of Sofi that, whenever the rifle should be successful and
I could spare meat, I would hoist the English flag upon my
flagstaff; thus I could at any time summon a crowd of hungry
visitors, who were ever ready to swim the river and defy the
crocodiles in the hope of obtaining flesh. We were exceedingly
comfortable, having a large stock of supplies; in addition to our
servants we had acquired a treasure in a nice old slave woman,
whom we had hired from the sheik at a dollar per month to grind
the corn. Masara (Sarah) was a dear old creature, the most
willing and obliging specimen of a good slave; and she was one of
those bright exceptions of the negro race that would have driven
Exeter Hall frantic with enthusiasm. Poor old Masara! she had now
fallen into the hands of a kind mistress, and as we were
improving in Arabic, my wife used to converse with her upon the
past and present; future had never been suggested to her simple
mind. Masara had a weighty care; her daily bread was provided;
money she had none, neither did she require it; husband she could
not have had, as a slave has none, but is the common property of
all who purchase her: but poor Masara had a daughter, a charming
pretty girl of about seventeen, the offspring of one of the old
woman's Arab masters. Sometimes this girl came to see her mother,
and we arranged the bath on the inflated skins, and had her towed
across for a few days. This was Masara's greatest happiness, but
her constant apprehension; the nightmare of her life was the
possibility that her daughter should be sold and parted from her.
The girl was her only and all absorbing thought, the sole object
of her affection: she was the moon in her mother's long night of
slavery; without her, all was dark and hopeless. The hearts of
slaves are crushed and hardened by the constant pressure of the
yoke; nevertheless some have still those holy feelings of
affection that nature has implanted in the human mind: it is the
tearing asunder of those tender chains that renders slavery the
horrible curse that it really is; human beings are reduced to the
position of animals, without the blessings enjoyed by the brute
creation--short memories and obtuse feelings.

Masara, Mahomet, Wat Gamma, and Bacheet, formed the establishment
of Ehetilla, which was the Arab name of our locality. Bacheet was
an inveterate sportsman and was my constant and sole attendant
when shooting; his great desire was to accompany me in
elephant-hunting, when he promised to carry one of my spare
rifles as a trusty gun-bearer, and he vowed that no animal should
ever frighten him.

A few extracts from my journal written at that time will convey
a tolerable idea of the place and our employments.

"September 23.--Started for the Settite river. In about four
hours' good marching N.N.E. through a country of grass and mimosa
bush that forms the high land between that river and the Atbara,
I reached the Settite about a mile from the junction. The river
is about 250 yards wide, and flows through a broken valley of
innumerable hillocks and deep ravines of about five miles in
width, precisely similar in character to that of the Atbara; the
soil having been denuded by the rains, and carried away by the
floods of the river towards the Nile. The heat was intense; there
was no air stirring; a cloudless sky and a sun like a
burning-glass. We saw several nellut (Taurotragus strepsiceros),
but these superb antelopes were too wild to allow a close
approach. The evening drew near, and we had nothing to eat, when
fortunately I espied a fine black-striped gazelle (Gazella
Dorcas), and with the greatest caution I stalked it to within
about a hundred paces, and made a successful shot with the
Fletcher rifle, and secured our dinner. Thus provided, we
selected a steep sugarloaf-shaped hill, upon the peak of which we
intended to pass the night. We therefore cleared away the grass,
spread boughs upon the ground, lighted fires, and prepared for a
bivouac. Having a gridiron, and pepper and salt, I made a grand
dinner of liver and kidneys, while my men ate a great portion of
the gazelle raw, and cooked the remainder in their usual careless
manner by simply laying it upon the fire for a few seconds until
warmed half through. There is nothing like a good gridiron for
rough cooking; a frying-pan is good if you have fat, but without
it, the pan is utterly useless. With a gridiron and a couple of
iron skewers a man is independent:--the liver cut in strips and
grilled with pepper and salt is excellent, but kabobs are
sublime, if simply arranged upon the skewer in alternate pieces
of liver and kidney cut as small as walnuts, and rubbed with
chopped garlic, onions, cayenne, black pepper, and salt. The
skewers thus arranged should be laid either upon the glowing
embers, or across the gridiron.

"Not a man closed his eyes that night--not that the dinner
disagreed with them--but the mosquitoes! Lying on the ground, the
smoke of the fires did not protect us; we were beneath it, as
were the mosquitoes likewise; in fact the fires added to our
misery, as they brought new plagues in thousands of flying bugs;
with beetles of all sizes and kinds: these, becoming stupified in
the smoke, tumbled clumsily upon me, entangling themselves in my
long beard and whiskers, crawling over my body, down my neck, and
up my sleeping-drawers, until I was swarming with them; the bugs
upon being handled squashed like lumps of butter, and emitted a
perfume that was unbearable. The night seemed endless; it was
passed in alternately walking to and fro, flapping right and left
with a towel, covering my head with a pillow-case, and gasping
for air through the button-hole, in an atmosphere insufferably
sultry.

"At length morning dawned, thank Heaven! I made a cup of strong
coffee, ate a morsel of dhurra bread, and started along the high
ground parallel with the course of the Settite river up stream.

"After walking for upwards of four hours over ground covered with
tracks of giraffes, elephants, and antelopes about a fortnight
old, I saw four tetel (Antelopus Bubalis), but I was unfortunate
in my shot at a long range in high grass. We had been marching
south-east, and as I intended to return to camp, we now turned
sharp to the west. The country was beautiful, composed of
alternate glades, copses, and low mimosa forest. At length I
espied the towering head of a giraffe about half a mile distant;
he was in the mimosa forest, and was already speculating upon our
party, which he had quickly observed. Leaving my men in this spot
to fix his attention, I succeeded in making a good stalk to
within one hundred and twenty yards of him. He was exactly facing
me, and I waited for him to turn and expose the flank, but he
suddenly turned so quickly that I lost the opportunity, and he
received the bullet in his back as he started at full speed; for
the moment he reeled crippled among the mimosas, but, recovering,
he made off. I could not fire the left-hand barrel on account of
the numerous trees and bushes. I called my men, and followed for
a few hundred yards upon his track, but as this was directly in
an opposite direction to that of my camp I was forced to give up
the hunt.*

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