Page:A voyage to Abyssinia (Salt).djvu/348

 rains. This small tract of land forms a goolta, or fief, belonging to the Nayib of Massowa, who holds it by consent of the Abyssinian chiefs in the neighbourhood; and it is said to yield him a considerable quantity of corn. A few miles beyond, we came to two villages, called Séah and Kudoona, in the neighbourhood of which we pitched our encampment for the night. The ruler of the district, Shum Sadoo, was at this time absent on a visit to Gondar, whither he had gone for the purpose of soliciting from the Emperor the rank of Kantiba; the whole of the inhabitants of this part of the country, from Hamazen to Adowa, being much attached to royalty, and entertaining a strong objection against holding their lands under any other authority. In his way to Gondar he had passed through Antálo, where I had seen him in the presence of the Ras, and the latter, when Shum Sadoo mentioned his purpose, smilingly remarked, "you may go if you please, and get what title you like: but you shall pay your tribute to me." Towards evening the brother of Shum Sadoo paid us a visit, and brought the usual supply of provisions: and in return I made him a present of twenty dollars, for which he promised us protection down to Arkeeko. In the course of the evening we took several observations of stars, and a set of lunars, the result of which was as follows:

On the following day we passed over a second ridge of the mountains, and had to descend another very steep and rugged path, but of no great length, like that of the preceding day. A few miles beyond this we came to a stream of water, running towards the coast, through a bed of grey-coloured granite, where we staid for about an hour under the shade of some trees, to refresh our