quently felt assured of our security, I received considerable amusement from the study of their characters. Among the Hazorta, Shum Hummar took the lead. He was a tall raw-boned man, of a loose scrambling gait, and seemed to possess a very strange compound of character. He was obsequious and mean in the extreme, yet occasionally became imperious, overbearing and haughty. He would fawn upon any one, like the basest sycophant, for the sake of a dollar; yet, even among his equals, his conversation consisted almost entirely in an ostentatious display of his own personal merits. "I am a ruler," "a governor," "a king," "a lion in battle," "my strength is equal to that of an elephant," were the phrases he commonly made use of, and these were uttered with wild and insolent gestures, that evinced, at least, his own belief in the assertions. Mr. Pearce bore this behaviour with tolerable patience for the first two days, regarding him generally with a sort of sullen contempt, but, at this place, on his proceeding still further, and comparing himself to Ras Welled Selassé, Mr. Pearce started up, seized his spear and shield, and placing himself in an attitude of defiance, told him, that "he was not equal to the Ras's meanest slave," daring him to a trial of his strength. The menacing aspect which Mr. Pearce assumed on this occasion produced its proper impression; Hummar pretended to bluster for a few moments, but was evidently daunted. He shortly afterwards came to me, and made a terrible complaint respecting "Mr. Pearce's violence," but as I had witnessed the whole affair, and was much delighted with the manly conduct of the latter, I refused all interference in the business: the former became, in consequence, much more humble, and we never again had cause to be dissatisfied with his behaviour.
On the 28th, at six o'clock, we left Hamhammo. The pass from this place seldom exceeded a hundred yards in width, the ground continuing to form one irregular ascent, which latter circumstance often occasioned the stream to be lost under ground, but it seldom ran any distance without again making its appearance on the surface. At eight o'clock we halted at Sadoon, on a small verdant spot, under the shelter of some bushy trees.
