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

TIME glided away smoothly at our camp amidst the storms of the rainy season. The Arabs had nothing to do, and suffered much from the absence of their herds, as there was a great...

Two months had elapsed since the last drop of rain had closed the wet season. It was 15th November, and the river had fallen to so low an ebb that the stream was reduced to a br...

HAVING explored the Settite into the gorge of the mountain chain of Abyssinia, we now turned due south from our camp of Delladilla, and at a distance of twelve miles we reached...

OUR course lay as usual along the banks of the river, which we several times forded to avoid the bends. Great numbers of antelopes were upon the river's bed, having descended to...

MAHOMET, Achmet, and Ali are equivalent to Smith, Brown, and Thompson. Accordingly, of my few attendants, my dragoman was Mahomet, and my principal guide was Achmet; and subsequ...

I HAD been for some hours in the camp, but none of the aggageers had returned, neither had we received any tidings of our people and camels that had left us at daybreak to searc...

FOR some days we continued our journey along the banks of the Dinder, and as the monotonous river turned towards the junction with the Blue Nile, a few miles distant, we made a...

ABOU DO and Suleiman had lately given me some trouble, especially the former, whose covetous nature had induced him to take much more than his share of the hides of buffaloes an...

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...

I WILL not follow the dates of the journal consecutively, but merely pounce from time to time upon such passages as will complete the description of our life at Ehetilla.

EARLY on the following morning the lions were still roaring, apparently within a hundred yards of the camp. I accordingly took a Reilly No. 10 double rifle and accompanied by my...

WITHOUT troubling the public with a description of that portion of the Nile to the north of the first cataract, or with a detailed account of the Egyptian ruins, that have been...

WE left the village of Toganai at 5 A.M. and, after a rapid march of sixteen miles, we came in view of Metemma, or Gallabat, in the bottom of a valley surrounded by hills, and b...

WE daily followed the banks of the Rahad, the monotony of which I will not inflict upon the public. This country was a vast tract of wonderfully fertile prairie, that nearly for...

ON the morning of the 25th July, 1861, Abou Sinn arrived at our tent with a number of his followers, in their whitest apparel, accompanied by one of his grandsons, Sheik Ali, wh...

WE started from Geera, on the 23d of December, with our party complete. The Hamran sword-hunters were Abou Do, Jali, and Suleiman. My chief tracker was Taher Noor, who, although...

AMONG the retinue of the aged sheik, whom we now accompanied, were ten of his sons, some of whom appeared to be quite as old as their father. We had ridden about two miles, when...

A VIOLENT thunderstorm, with a deluge of rain, broke upon our camp upon the banks of the Atbara, fortunately just after the tents were pitched. We thus had an example of the ext...

"March 25, 1862.--Mai Gubba is about twelve miles E.N.E. of our camp. Mek Nimmur's stronghold is upon a lofty table-mountain, due south of this spot, from which great elevation...

BY dead reckoning, Cassala is ninety-three miles S.S.E. of Gozerajup, or about 340 miles from Berber. We had ridden about 710 miles from Korosko, 630 miles of which had been thr...

I HAD thoroughly explored the beautiful country of the Salaam and Angrab; it was the 11th of April, and I intended to push on to Gallabat, the frontier market-town of Abyssinia....

THE journey along the margin of the Atbara was similar to the entire route from Berber, a vast desert, with the narrow band of trees that marked the course of the river; the onl...

Go into Half Mourning--"Child of the Fever"--The Arab M.D.--Arab Fondness for Relics--The Pest Spots of the World--The Dangers of Holy Shrines--Arrival of the Holy Body--The Fak...

Girls carried away by the Rapids--An amphibious Arab Girl--Search for the drowned Girl--The Corpse recovered--The Sheik lays down the Law--"The Fact is simply impossible"--The S...

Hor Mai Gubba--The Francolin Partridge--We watch for Game--Out with the Aggageers--The Banks of the Royan--We find a Bull Elephant--Helter- skelter--The Elephant at Bay--Roder w...

Curious Hunting Party--Character of Abyssinian Rivers--Borassus AEthiopicus--Rufaar and the Arab Sheik--The Blue Nile--The very gentlemanly Faky--Regularly "sold"--Arrival at Kh...

Jali's Thigh is broken--Abou Do saves Jali--Extraordinary Dexterity--Jungle Surgery--We lose our best Man--My Tokrooris determine to desert--A little Diplomacy is required--The...

Departure of the Aggageers--Game returning from the River--A Bull Rhinoceros--We stalk the Rhinoceros--The Death--The Aggageers poach upon my Manor--Their Prize dies--Taher Noor...

We seek an Introduction--The Start of the Sword Hunters--The Bull Elephant--The "Baby" screams at him--The Fight, Sword in Hand--Abou Do's Blade tastes Blood--We find the Herd--...

The Camp at Delladila--Trionis Nilotica--Fish linked to Reptiles--Scenes on the River's Margin--The Nellut (A. Strepsiceros)--Swimming Rivers with a Horse--The Lion--The Lion Hu...

Fire the Valley--Arrival of Birds--Seized by a Crocodile--Audacity of the Buzzard--The Abomination of Thorns--Boa Constrictor--The Baboons hunt for Berries--Masses of small Bird...

The Arab Centaurs--Wild Arab Horsemanship--Discipline of the Gun-bearers--Off goes the Gun, and its Master!--Ombrega (Mother of the Thorn)--Leopard Springs into the Camp--The Do...

Journey along the Rahad--Rich Country--We cross over to the Dinder--Ferocity of Crocodiles in that River--Character of the Dinder--Activity of the African Elephant--Distinction...

The Cairo Dragoman Mahomet--Mahomet forsakes his Pistols--The Route to the Atbara--The Dry Bed of the River--The Dome Palm--Preparation of the Fruit--Pools of the Atbara--Collec...

Poisonous Water--The Trade of Abyssinia--We encounter Missionaries--The theological Blacksmith--The Missionaries' Medicine-Chest--Jemma, Sheik of the Tokrooris--The Egyptians' a...

Arabs consume the Raw Flesh--Arrival at the Bahr Salaam--Character of the Torrents--The Junction of the Angrab--Good Sport--Four lucky Hits--A Fall over a Cliff--We save the Cam...

The Impromptu Ferry--Achmet is tempted by Satan--Mahomet's Relative absconds--End of the Rainy Season--The Seroot Fly disappears--The "Till"--Preparations for Fishing--"That was...

The Arab Welcome--Abou Sinn's Advice--Arab Tribes of Nubia--A Hint to Octogenarians--The Arab Pomade--The Arab Lady's Perfumery--The fatal Mixture--The Coiffure of the World--Th...

Sterility--Arrival at Korosko--Twenty-six Days from Cairo--The Nubian Desert--Nature's Pyramids--Volcanic Bombs--The Stony Sea-- The Camel's Grave--The Crows of Moorahd--A delic...

Ahead of the Camels--The Maarif--View from the Peak--The Rhinoceros attacks the Horse--The Bullet saves him--Arrival of the Horses--The Rhinoceros Hunt--Ridden to bay--Arrival o...

Cotton Farm of Malem Georgis--Ferocious Crocodiles--Shoot a Monster--The Public Enemy--Resistance of a Crocodile's Scales--Discover Gold--Heavy Action of the Camel--El Baggar se...

First-class Hygeens--Travelling Arrangements--The Evening Bivouac--The Junction of the Settite River--Sheik Atalan Wat Said--Abyssinian Frontier--Ismael Pasha burnt alive--Mek N...

Facilities of the Port of Souakim--Fortifications of Cassala--Conquest of Nubia--Cruel Taxation--Extreme Cheapness of Corn--Cultivation of Cereals--Arab Bread--Military Position...

My First and Last--Appetite for raw Meat--The Bishareen Arabs-- Gozerajup--The First Rain--Limits of the Desert--The Hadendowa Arabs--The Wells of Soojalup--Antelopes--Antelope...