Page:A voyage to Abyssinia (Salt).djvu/186

 The wilds around us abounded with partridges and other game, in the pursuit of which we passed the day. (At noon the thermometer was 80°, with a few drops of rain.) At one o'clock we again set out, and after a short march passed Tubbo. This spot struck me, as by far the most picturesque on the road; the cliffs and rugged precipices around were covered with vegetation; and the trees and plants being at this time in full verdure rendered it peculiarly beautiful. At three we arrived at Leila, where we pitched our camp for the night. The Abyssinian mode of forming an encampment is simple and well adapted to journies of this description, where tents might prove too serious an encumbrance. On their arrival at a station, where they intend to stay any time, the men begin to cut down, with the large knives which they carry about them, a number of green boughs, and these they arrange into bowers with so much art, that, when a cloth is thrown over them, they afford not only shelter from the sun in the day time, but complete protection from the cold during the night. Our whole party this evening appeared in high spirits; the Abyssinians from the gratification they felt in having advanced so far on their return homeward; and the Hazorta from the pleasure they experienced in breathing the air of their native wilds. Nothing can be more distinct than the character of the latter people, when shut up in towns, and when residing in the desert; in the former they exhibit a servile and abject demeanour; while in the latter their behaviour takes the opposite turn, and becomes in the highest degree characteristic of an insolent independence. They had been joined in the morning by about a dozen of their comrades, and, when the evening had closed in, they formed themselves into a semicircle, at a short distance from one of the fires, and amused themselves with an exhibition of their native dance. In the absence of better music they were obliged to content themselves with a single tom-tom, the harmony of which was greatly heightened by the clapping of hands and a peculiar kind of hissing that I never before had heard, somewhat resembling the sounds produced by a quick and alternate pronunciation of the consonants p, t, and s. Only one person danced at a time,