granite, worn round by the action of water, which must have been carried down here by some great flood of anterior times, as there were no granite mountains near at hand from which they could have rolled into the valley. The forest was full of cushat doves: and on almost every tree were to be seen couples of these beautiful and affectionate little birds, which filled the air with their gentle cooings. It was with great reluctance that we were forced to shoot some for supper; but as it was now one of the great Abyssinian fasts, we had been unable to procure meat for some time, and we had not been fortunate enough to find any game except baboons, which really looked too like men and brothers to be pleasant food. Hot and tired after a ten hours' march, we were glad to pitch our tents in the first glade of the forest which was sufficiently open to allow us to see round on all sides, for we were now in the country where Aba-Kassié was supposed to be lurking, and might be liable to an attack at any moment. The mountain

stream I have before alluded to had disappeared under the surface of the ground, but there was a hole dug near our camp, from which we obtained water, though it was so black and nauseous that even the large quantities of coffee we boiled with it hardly made it drinkable.

This night we all slept in the same tent, each with his rifle and revolver at his side, and the spare guns loaded with double charges of buck shot, placed on the ground ready for use. Each of us in turn was to keep guard for two hours, as we knew we could not trust our

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tired servants to maintain a vigilant watch; besides which, the very name of Aba-Kassié was one of such terror to Abyssinian ears, that it was only necessary for him to walk into a village and cry out in a loud voice, Aba-Kassié balla beyt (Aba-Kassié is lord here), for every one to take to flight; and once, when he had been actually taken prisoner, and his hands bound, he so terrified his captors by the mere recital of his achievements, that, unable to bear it any longer, they ran away and left him free to make his escape.

It fell to my lot to mount guard first, and nothing could be more beautiful than the moonlight, as I stepped out into it from the dark tent where my companions were sleeping, and began my solitary watch, pacing up and down under the great trees, whose white trunks, contrasting with the darker shadows of the forest, looked like a weird line of ghosts; while far above towered the peaks of the mountains as dim and shadowy as the walls of some fantastic castle in the air. Not a breath of wind was stirring; the porters lay by their loads, wrapped from head to foot in their grey blankets, looking like so many corpses, and no sound disturbed the stillness of the night save the crackling of the fire I had kindled under an iron-wood tree hard by.

There is something wonderfully soothing in the perfect calm of a fine night in the tropics, where no ragged clouds disturb the blue depths of the sky, and the stars, instead of appearing to vibrate and tremble, look still and lustrous as planets do in our more northern climes.

So three hours slipped rapidly by, and I determined to take the second watch as well as the first. I had been sitting some time musing by the fire, thinking of all the old memories that the red glow of a fire somehow seems to have the power of conjuring up, when a slight rustling noise broke the prevailing silence, and I thought I could detect the sound of feet moving cautiously through the thickest part of the forest; picking up my gun, I glided noiselessly among the trees to reconnoitre, and presently, just in front of me, I saw something round and hairy like a man's head, appear over the top of a big boulder, and of course challenged it at once : Who goes there? Mindenaü?"—but there was no answer; and I distinctly heard the scuttling of feet over the dry leaves. I rushed forward, and a little further on discovered the enemy, i.e., a party of hares travelling by night; for these animals are very migratory, and often march great distances between sunrise and sunset. How I longed to shoot a brace of them, for there was nothing but dry bread for breakfast in the morning; but the risk of alarming my companions, and bringing them tumbling out to fight an imaginary AbaKassié, was too great, so I let the hares go their way in peace, and soon after turned into the tent to sleep, while C. stepped forth silently to take his turn of the watch.

March 12th.-We passed the village of Goundet, and leaving the gorge to our right emerged on the shoulder of a steep and barren mountain. The Hamedo plains lay far below us, and at the further side of them stood a grand `mountain range, which added greatly to the

beauty of the view. Our road was now only a narrow siding, not two feet wide, scooped in the face of the rock, and to avoid knocking our left shoulders, we had to lean out towards the precipice, over which our right feet hung pleasantly suspended in mid air. There was an angle of the road where the track was almost obliterated, and a bare face of rock descended perpendicularly to the valley eight hundred feet below. At this particular spot my unfortunate mule took the opportunity of stumbling, and her hind legs slipping over the precipice, we remained for what appeared an unconscionable time-like Mahomet's coffin-suspended between heaen and earth. I could not get off, for there was nothing under my feet; and when, after a fearful struggle, which exhausted all her strength, my mule at last dragged herself on to the track again, I knew for the first time in my life what it was to feel really giddy and faint.

When we reached the plain we again crossed the Mareb, here a much wider river than when we last saw it, though there was now no water in its sandy bed; however, by digging a hole we at length obtained some, which was very brackish, and only rendered palatable by mixing with it vinegar from our pickle bottles. Our men here displayed some uneasiness about AbaKassié, and begged those who had guns to load them and go in front, which meant, they wished us to leave them a clear field for running away. A short way beyond the Mareb we came to another stream flowing into it, where there was plenty of water and some tall