Visit to the Karaiyo Galla.

As each evening closed, the appearance over the high range of Bulga was magnificent. Dark clouds, occasionally pierced by a bright ray of the sinking sun, drove in dense volumes across this mountain wall; and as they rolled on towards the lofty cone of Megásus, they revealed in their track the precipitous and rugged nature of bluffs which had before presented an unbroken surface. Rain not unfrequently fell during the night, and penetrating the flimsy cotton awnings as if they had been cullenders, rendered an umbrella necessary towards the protection of the damp pillow.

Resolved to view the mysterious Fantáli from the country of the Karaiyo Galla, whence might be determined the interesting question of its activity or quiescence, I planned an excursion with Captain Graham to the lake Muttahára, whose glassy bosom, surrounded by great belts of yellow grass, and stretching along the western base of the volcano, we had regarded with intense curiosity, as it sparkled under the beams of the setting sun. Absence of water on the road rendered it imperative that our party should be limited; and the insuperable aversion displayed by every follower to a second expedition to the low country caused little disappointment. Many had already suffered severely from inflammation of the eyes; and greater difficulty could hardly have been experienced in obtaining volunteers for the most desperate forlorn hope—the Aroosi beyond the Háwash, a tribe distinguished for surpassing ferocity, being declared the bitter enemy of every Christian and Mohammadan.

The governor had already proceeded in advance, to collect his vassals; and on the morning fixed for our departure a heavy white fog, such as is wont to envelope the capital of Shoa during three-quarters of the year, veiled the entire face of nature. The first five miles led across the richly-cultivated terrace of Berhut, amid numerous hamlets which gradually became visible as the mist ascended. Aingodiyé, on the top of the pass, together with the entire district of that denomination, pertains to the Lady Asagásh, who, decked in her holiday costume, politely sallied forth, with her train of household slaves and handmaidens, to greet the passing strangers.

This portly dame, whose appearance is truly indicative of her wealth, was the favourite concubine of the famous Medóko at the period of his assassination; and having been suffered by the despot to retain the extensive domains conferred upon her paramour during the days of his glory, a thrifty disposition has swelled her hoard of corn, oil, and beeves, beyond all bounds. In her retinue came a disconsolate couple chained together by the wrists—thieves no doubt—and said to be man and wife, whom the Wo?zoro facetiously declared it had been found requisite to link by bonds stronger than those of wedlock, in order to counteract a decided disinclination to the society of the husband, evinced by the inconstant spouse in three several elopements.

Descending by a steep pass through the district of Goorooréza—a perfect wilderness of rugged mountains—we crossed the river of that name near its junction with the Casam, and shortly afterwards the Casam itself, from which all the villages for many miles round derive their supply of water. Taking its source in the elevated plains of Germáma, this tributary of the Háwash escapes through the mountains by a deep defile, worn in the lapse of ages by the autumnal torrents, betwixt Mentshar and Bulga. Thence it winds on beneath perpendicular bluffs jutting out from the high table-land. Of these the principal is the frowning promontory of Gougou, which, like a natural fortress, abruptly terminates the Tudla Mariam plateau, extending to Angollála in one uninterrupted terrace, celebrated for the capsicums and fine cotton wool raised by its Christian population.

From the bed of the Casam the road wound up the Choba ravine, through a fissure formed near the point of junction by two gigantic blocks of granite, which confine the rugged defile to just sufficient width for the transit of a mule. The stupendous mass wore the appearance of having been hurled in remote ages from the summit of the impending cliff, the force of the concussion rending it in twain, and forming the key to a road, which by a handful of resolute men might be defended against the mightiest host. An ascent of one thousand feet over the Woleecha mountain, by a narrow path worn in the columnar trap, led to another elevated plateau, where, after the arrival of the governor, the staff was set up for the night at the Moslem village of Seeágur, eleven miles from Dummakoo.

The threshing-floor whereon our tent was erected, standing upon one of the many tongues of table-land that intersect the district of Wolágur, looked down a long lone valley bounded on the opposite side by the perpendicular wall of Boorkikee, upon the verge of which, surrounded by a milk-bush hedge, rose the secluded church of Saint George, the last Christian edifice of Mentshar. The sudden termination of the terrace, which abruptly drops into the country of the Galla, commanded an extensive prospect over the wilderness of Táboo, bounded by the distant blue hills of the Gámoo and Aroosi. Rising among the Sáma Galla, and overflowing the level land in the season of its height, the Táboo, like most of the secondary streams in this district, is dissipated by the fiery heat of the plains before reaching the Háwash.

Double the number of retainers, both horse and foot, to that which actually............