Page:A voyage to Abyssinia (Salt).djvu/183

 this party so formidable in numbers, only fourteen were furnished with fire-arms and spears. The others carrying merely slings, knives, and short heavy sticks. I had known two of the Hazorta chiefs in my former expedition; Hummar, who had stood my friend at the bottom of Taranta, and Omar, who had acted as our guide in the journey from Massowa to Dixan: the latter of these I knew to be an unprincipled villain; the third was an entire stranger.

At half past five, the whole caravan having assembled, we commenced our journey. The plain, which we had to cross, extended in a gradual ascent froth Arkeeko to the first ridge of mountains, and was occasionally covered with a species of mimosa called Girá. We saw great numbers of camels, sheep, asses and goats in the course of the day, and passed two villages; one of which was called Dukona, and the other Dábi. Round these villages several inclosures of kush-kush or juwarry had been formed, which appeared to be in a very flourishing state, and were guarded by boys mounted on stages like those common in Arabia, of which a drawing is given in the Description de l'Arabie, (page 137, Plate XV.) by Niebuhr. At sunset we reached a station on a rising ground, situated at the bottom of the first line of hills, called Shillokee, where we encamped for the night, There was something very exhilarating in the scene we now experienced. The night was clear, and our party soon divided into a variety of groups, each collected round its separate fire; and, at eight o'clock, when the short evening prayer of the Christians, "Jehu-mahar-naxoo," ("Jesus forgive us,") chaunted in very harmonious notes, stole along the camp, an awful sensation of independence and inexpressible delight thrilled through my whole frame, only to be conceived by those, who, like myself, had been just emancipated from the irksome confinement of a ship, and a society equally detestable with that at Arkeeko.

On the 26th, at a quarter before three in the morning, we left our encampment, and at half past six, after travelling over a rugged ridge of low hills, the basis of which appeared to be composed almost entirely of granitic rocks rising over a bed of micaceous earth, we