A sporting trip through Abyssinia : a narrative of a nine months' journey from the plains of the Hawash to the snows of Simien, with a description of the game, from elephant to ibex, and notes on the manners and customs of the natives . ioh elevation and rarefied air on a man comincr froma lower level. A few days later, when I was photo-graphing some ibex heads, I slashed off the top ofa short gibarrar, and was surprised at the evident dis-pleasure of a native standing by. Thinking the juicemight be poisonous, I questioned him through theinterpreter, and learnt that they believe each tree tobe
A sporting trip through Abyssinia : a narrative of a nine months' journey from the plains of the Hawash to the snows of Simien, with a description of the game, from elephant to ibex, and notes on the manners and customs of the natives . ioh elevation and rarefied air on a man comincr froma lower level. A few days later, when I was photo-graphing some ibex heads, I slashed off the top ofa short gibarrar, and was surprised at the evident dis-pleasure of a native standing by. Thinking the juicemight be poisonous, I questioned him through theinterpreter, and learnt that they believe each tree tobe the abode of an evil spirit, who has been cast outof a human being; that he will do no harm so longas the tree is left uninjured ; but, if his retreatbe assailed, the spirit will revenge himself by oncemore taking possession of a human being, and mostlikely the perpetrator of the outrage or some onedear to him. For an hour we marched over fairly level ground,passing round the head of the Serracum. To our right COLD WIND 359 lay a great expanse of rock and valley half hidden incloud ; from this blew an icy blast, which seemed tocut through my khaki clothing like a knife. Theground was thickly strewn with locusts, which had tried. Mantled Baboon. Siiiticit. to cross and had perished by the cold. The Somaliswere ashy-blue with cold, every one was shivering, andeven the mules could only with difficulty be made toface the freezing wind. Fortunately, we soon began todescend by a steep but fairly good track, with a wall ofragged cliffs on our left, and an apparently bottomlesspit filled with clouds on our right. In a little grassy 36o A SPORTING\TRIP THROUGH ABYSSINIA chap. bay, between sheer cliffs, we came upon a troop ofnearly three hundred baboons ; they were busily tearingup and eating the grass or something that grew amongstit. At first they paid but little attention to us, merelymoving a little higher up, but when they saw me beginto climb towards them, there was great commoti
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1902
