No. IV.
I have endeavoured in this Appendix to give a concise view of the animals indigenous to Abyssinia, and I have added the lists of a considerable number of rare birds and plants, which I discovered in the course of my travels in that country.
The animals domesticated throughout the kingdom consist of oxen, sheep (of a small black species,) goats, horses, mules, asses, and a few camels. Two different species of dogs are commonly met with, one of which, like the paria dog of India, owns no particular master, but is attached in packs to the different villages; and the other is a strong and swift animal employed in the pursuits of the chase. The latter from its earliest age is taught to run down its game, especially guinea-fowls: and it is astonishing how expert it becomes in catching them, never for an instant losing sight of the birds, after it has once started them from their haunts. Tame cats are likewise to be found in every house in Abyssinia.
The wild animals, called Ansissa Gudam, inhabiting the forest or "barraka," form a very numerous tribe, of which a concise list, with their names in Tigré and Amharic, may tend to convey a sufficiently accurate idea.
The elephant, (armaz, T. zohan, Amh.) is found in all the forests bordering on Abyssinia, and is commonly hunted by the Shangalla for the sake of its teeth.
The camelopard, (zeratta, T. jeratta ketchin, A.) is an animal rarely to be met with, owing to the shyness of its nature, and from its frequenting only the interior districts uninhabited by man. Its skin forms an article of barter in some of the provinces: and an ornament made of the hair plucked from the tail is commonly fastened to the but-ends of the whips, used by the inhabitants for the purpose of brushing away flies, which are exceedingly troublesome during the hot season. The whips themselves are formed out of the skin of the hippopetamos, and are called "Hallinga."
The only species of Rhinoceros, (arwe haris, T. aweer haris, A.) which I could hear of, was the two-horned rhinoceros, similar to that found in the neighbourhood of the Cape of Good Hope; of which a very admirable drawing is given by Mr. Barrow. This I believe was first described by Mr. Sparman. I myself never met with it alive, as it frequents only the low countries bordering on the Funge, or the wild forests of Wojjerat; but I procured several sets of horns, fastened together by a portion of the skin; whence it appears that they have no connection whatever with the bone of the head, a fact which gives a considerable degree of credibility to the notion generally received among the natives of Africa, that this animal possesses a power of depressing or raising the horns at will. Bruce ridicules Sparman for mentioning this circumstance; but as the drawing given by the former is evidently very incorrect,[1] no great
- ↑ The drawing of Mr. Bruce appears to have been copied from Buffon's one-horned rhinoceros, and to have had the second horn annexed to it, at the two-horned rhinoceros wants the folds in the skin which are there given.
