Page:A voyage to Abyssinia (Salt).djvu/227

 Mr. Pearce described the Lasta soldiers as remarkable for their horsemanship, a quality not common among mountaineers; but this in a great measure is attributable to the connexion subsisting between this province and that of Begemder, the natives of which not only pride themselves on their breed of horses, but are also distinguished by the skill with which they train them for service. The language of the country is Amharic, and the inhabitants wear their hair long and plaited, like the natives to the south. In other respects they resemble the Galla more than the people of Tigré, and they are considered, in general, as great boasters, though by no means deficient in courage.

The town of Socōta lies about ten miles from the Tacazze, and Mr. Pearce estimated it to be larger, and to contain a greater population than Antálo. These towns are distant from each other about six days journey. The treatment which Mr. Pearce experienced in the former place was altogether satisfactory, but he felt himself, to secure the continuance of it, under the necessity of concealing from the deputy of Ras Aylo his quarrel with the Ras.

Soon after leaving Socōta, Mr. Pearce arrived in the district of Waāg, commanded by a chief dependent on the Ras, called Shum Ayto Cónfu, and thence, leaving Bora and Salowá on his right, he persisted in his course for three days northward, along the banks of the Tacazze, through Gualiu, the country of the Agows, until he came within thirty miles of Maisada, a town which I shall elsewhere have occasion to describe in the account of a journey which I subsequently made to the Tacazze. During the line of his march, Mr. Pearce had not met with any river of consequence running into the Tacazze, though he had crossed, particularly about Mukkiné, a great number of small streams and rivulets.

It is a singular fact, that there exists among the Agows a peculiar prejudice against furnishing water to a stranger, so that, when Mr. Pearce occasionally visited their huts, he found the occupiers always ready to supply him with milk and bread, but never with the first-mentioned essential necessary. As this did not appear to be difficult to procure in the country, the aversion from