to touch the body; he had been ham-strung, and his throat cut, a performance probably of the neighbouring Shangalla. At fifty minutes past ten, our route being west, we passed under a hill a quarter of a mile on our right, upon which is a village called Salamgué. At a quarter past eleven we crossed the small river of Kantis; and a quarter of an hour afterwards we ascended a hill upon which stands a village of that name, inhabited by Mahometan Shangalla of the tribe of Baasa.
On the 20th we proceeded but a mile and a half; our beasts and ourselves being equally fatigued, and our cloaths torn all to rags. Guanjook is a very delightful spot by the river side; small woods of very high trees interspersed with very beautiful lawns; several fields also cultivated with cotton; variety of game (especially Guinea fowls, in great abundance) and, upon every tree, perroquets, of all the different kinds and colours, compose the beauties of Guanjook. I saw no parrots, and suppose there were none; but on firing a gun, the first probably ever heard in those woods, there was such a screaming of other birds on all sides, some flying to the place whence the noise came, and some flying from it, that it was impossible to hear distinctly any other sound. It was at this place that I shot that curious bird called the Erkoom[1] in Amhara; the Abba Gumba, in Tigrè; and here at Guanjook, Teir el Naciba, or the Bird of Destiny.
On the 22d, at three quarters past six we left Guanjook, and a few minutes after passed a small river called Gum
- ↑ See the article Erkoom in the Appendix.
