The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia, and the Sword Hunters of the Hamran Arabs

, but merely pounce from time to time upon such passages

monster. I was kept waiting for a considerable time, but at last he came with the usual tremendous rush. I gave him about fifty yards of line before I fixed him, and the struggle then commenced, as usual with the baggar, by his springing out of the water, and showing his superb form and size. This was a magnificent fish, and his strength was so great, that in his violent rushes he would take sixty or seventy yards of line without my permission. I could not check him, as the line burnt and cut my fingers to such a degree that

rian and his people. The two fish as they lay upon the green reeds, glittering in silvery scales, were a sight to gladden the eyes of a fisherman, as their joint weight was above one hundred

w the dried sedges and trash left by the high floods upon the overhanging boughs. The bed of the Atbara, and that of the Settite, are composed of rounded pebbles of all sizes, and masses of iron ore. Large oys

few large trees, and collecting gum from the mimosas. These hungry animals gather the tamarinds before they ripen, and I fear they will not leave a handful for us; nothing is more agreeable in this hot clima

ery day; storks of different kinds are arriving. Among the new comers is a beautiful little bird, in size and shape like a canary, but of a deep bluish black, with an ivory white bill and yellow lips. The beasts of prey are hungry, as the game has beco

ngerous sport, as the hunters are so continually in the water that they are exposed, like baits, to the attacks of crocodiles. During the last season one of the sheik's party was killed; several men were swimming the river, supported by inflated skins, when one was suddenly seized by a crocodile. Retaining his hold upon the support, his comrades had time to clutch him by the hair, and beneath the arms; thus the crocodile could not drag the buoyant skins beneath the surface. Once he was dragged from their grasp,

my people are more or less ill, but we, thank Heaven, are in excellent health; in fact, I have ne

insects that escape from the heat. Buzzards are so exceedingly bold, that it is one person's special duty to protect the strips of flesh when an animal is being cut up, at which time many scores collect, and swoop down upon their prey clutching a piece of meat wi

ts, knives, spikes, needles, pins, fish-hooks, hay-forks, harpoons, and every abomination in the shape of points which render a leather suit indispensable to a sportsman, even in this hot climate. My knickerbockers are made of the coarse but strong Arab cotton cloth, that I have dyed brown with the fruit of

ry will be dry enough to burn, when fire w

I accompanied him to the Settite, and came upon the tracks of a herd of about fifty elephants that had crossed the river a few days previous. As we were walking through the high grass we came upon a fine boa-constrictor (

night, roaring close to the tent at inter

immense dragon flies are now arrived, and ar

length and holding on by their mother's back hair. Suddenly a sharp-eyed young ape discovers a bush well covered with berries, and his greedy munching being quickly observed, a general rush of youngsters takes place, and much squabbling for the best places ensues among the boys; this ends in great uproar when down comes a great male, who cuffs one, pulls another by the hair, bites another on the hind quarters just as he thinks he has escaped, drags back a would-be deserter by his tail and shakes him thoroughly, and thus he shortly resto

eep angry cry of the baboons, who challenged him immediately from their secure positions on the high rocks and trees. I found the tracks of his large fe

y for drinking, as their beaks for an instant kiss the stream. These unfortunate little birds get no rest, the large fish and the crocodiles grab at them when they attempt to drink, while the falcons and hawks pursue them at all times and in ev

crocodile made a second dash at them, and seized another water-skin that a woman had dropped in her flight. They believe this to be the same monster that took a woman a few months ago. Few creatures are so sly and wary as the crocodile. I watch them continually as they attack the dense flocks of small birds that throng the bushes at the water's edge. These birds are perfectly aware of the danger, and they fly from the attack, if possible. The crocodile then quietly and innocently lies upon the surface, as though it had appeared quite by an accident; it thus attracts the attention of the birds, and it slowly sails away to a considerable distance, e

a hundred yards nearer, and again appearing for an instant upon the surface, it assures itself of the position of its prey by a stealthy look; once more it sinks, and reaches the exact spot above which the person or animal may b

ck, or the root of a tree, where it eats it at leisure. The tongue of the crocodile is so unlike that of any other creature that it can hardly be called by the same name; no

the latter are bright crimson, covered with long fleshy prickles, with black horny tips; these are eaten by the b

-grained sandstone which grinds through all leather. My soles are at length worn out, and I have repaired them with the tanned hide of giraffe. Much of the sands

cluded. The bay I named Tetel (hartebeest), the greys Aggahr* and Gazelle. Tetel was a trained hunter, as was Aggahr likewise. Gazelle was quite inexperienced, but remarkably handsome. None of these horses had ever been shod, but their hoofs were beautifully shaped, and as hard as ivory. The saddles had no stuffing on the seats, but were simple wooden frames, with high backs and pommels, the various pieces being sewn together with raw hide, and the front and back covered with crocodile skin. The stirrups were simple iron rings, sufficiently

signation of a hun

higher than a man's head when mounted upon a camel. Far as the eye can reach, the great table lands extend on either side the broad valley of the Atbara. The cotton that was planted many years ago by the inhabitants who have vanished, still flourishes, although choked with grass six or seven feet high. At 4 P.M. we reached a large village, Sherif el Ibrahim, twenty-eight miles S.E. from Sofi by the route upon the east bank of the Atbara, which cuts off a bend in the river. A species

ving skinned it, rushed at the carcase with knives and axes, and fought over it like a pack of wolves; neither d

red with large detached fragments of granite; near this are several pools of water, which form the source of the rivulet, the Till, that bounds our camp at Ehetilla. A large homera-tree (Adansonia digitata) grows among the blocks of granite by the pool; in the shade of its enormous boughs we breakfasted, and again started at 4 P.M. reaching the Settite river at 7.3O, at a spot named Geera. In the dark we

lovely. At that point the river did not exceed 200 yards in width, and it flowed through abrupt cliffs of beautiful rose-coloured limestone; so fine and pure was the surface of the stone, that in places it resembled artificially-smoothed marble; in other places, the cliffs, equally abrupt, were of milk-white limestone of similar qu

er. The wood had broken short off in the neck of the stock, I therefore bored a hole about three inches deep up the centre of either piece, so that it was hollowed like a marrow-bone; in one of them I inserted a piece of an iron ramrod, red-hot, I then drew the other piece over the iron in a similar manner, and gently tapped the shoulder-plate until I had driven the broken joint firmly together. I then took off from a couple of old boxes two strong brass hasps; these I let neatly into the wood on each side of the broken stock, and secured them by screws, filing off all projections, so that they fitted exactly. I finished the work by stretching a piece of well-soaked crocodile's skin over the joint, which, when drawn tight,

d tribute to Mek Nimmur, with whom he was upon the best of terms; therefore, in the constant fights that took place upon the borders, the cattle and people of Sheik Achmet were respected by the contending parties, while those of all others were sufferers. This was exactly the spot for my head-quarters, as, like Sheik Achmet, I wished to be on good terms with everybod

Mek Nimmur, the father of the present Mek. He was, I believe, the only European that had ever been in Mek Nimmur's territory, neither had his footsteps been followed until my arrival. Mr. Parkyns had left behind him what the Arabs call a "sweet name;" and as I happened to have his book, "Life in Abyssinia," with me, I showed it to the sheik as his production, and explained the illustrations, &c.; at the same time I told him that Mr. Parkyns had described his visit to Mek Nimmur, of whom he had spoken very highly, and that I wished to have an opportunity of telling the great chief in person how much h

on was also cultivated, and the neighbourhood was a fair example of the wonderful capabilities of the entire country that was allowed to lie in idleness. There was little rest for the inhabitants at this time, as the nights were spent in watching their ex

unning to give them a chance. There was a particular range of almost impenetrable thorny covert in the neighbourhood of Geera, well known as the asylum for these animals, to which they retreated, after having satia

ra-fields, and for a few hours I examined the crops, through whi

ad trampled down and wilfully broken much more than they had consumed. The Arabs knew nothing about guns, or their effect

n to my

lds quiet. A few nights ago there was a perfect uproar from a score of watchers, that prevented the elephants from coming at the very time that the people had induced me to pass the whole night in the fields. I have arranged that the sheik shall call in all

e pence). The sheik is exceedingly civil, and insists

ing his head and leaping half-way out of the water. This plunging demonstration was intended to frighten us. I had previously given Bacheet a pistol, and had ordered him to follow on the opposite bank from the ford at Wat el Negur. I now hallooed to him to fire several shots at the hippo, in order to drive him, if possible, towards me, as I lay in ambush behind a rock in the bed of the river. Bacheet descended the almost perpendicular bank to the water's edge, and after having chaffed the hippo considerably, he fired a shot with the pistol, which was far more dangerous to us on the opposite side than to the animal. The hippo, who was a

truggles, lashing the still and deep pool into waves, until he at length disappeared. We knew that he was settled; thus my people started off towards the village, and in a marvellousiy short time a frantic crowd of Arabs arrived with camels, ropes, axes, knives, and everything necessary for an onslaught upon the hippo, who, up to this time, had not appeared upon the surface. In about an hour and a half from the time he received the bullet, we discovered his carcase floating about two hundred yards lower down the river. Several heads of large crocodiles appeared and vanished suddenly within a few feet of the floating carcase, therefore the Arabs considered it pr

the Arabic fo

o him the 'Baby,' which he promised to put into my hands the very moment that I should fire my second barrel. I carried my own Ceylon No. 10, made by Beattie. We had not been half an hour in the dhurra fields before we met a couple of Arab watchers, wh

tall rows of dhurra, and after carefully stalking against the wind, I felt sure that it would be necessary to kill the single elephant before I should be able to attack the herd. Accordingly, I crept nearer and nearer, well concealed in the favourable crop of high and sheltering stems, until I was within fifteen yards of the hindmost animal. As I had never shot one of the African species, I was determined to follow the Ceylon plan, and get as near as possible; therefore I continued to creep from row to row of dhurra, until I at length stood at the very tail of the elephant in the next row. I could easily have touched it with my rifle, but just at thi

t Bacheet? the would-be Nimrod, who for the last three months had been fretting in inactivity, and longing for the moment of action, when he had promised to be my trusty gun-bearer! He was the last man to appear, and he only ventured from his hiding-place in the high dhurra when assured of the elephants' retreat. I was obliged to admonish the whole