I came out of the tent to mount my mule for Tcherkin. I now saw Confu's servant, whose name was Welleta Yasous, pulling the Guinea-fowls and pigeons out of the pannier, where my servants had put them, and scattering them upon the ground, and he was faying to those who interrupted him, "Throw away this carrion; you shall have a better breakfast and dinner, too, to-day;" and turning to me more than ordinarily pleased at feeing me dressed, and that I continued to use the Abyssinian habit, he jumped upon his mule, and appeared in great spirits, and we all set out at a brisker pace than usual, by the assistance of the two fresh mules.
We passed through the midst of several small villages. At half an hour past eight we came to the mountain of Tcherkin, which we rounded on the west, and then on the north, keeping the mountain always on our right. At twenty minutes past ten I pitched my tent in the market-place at Tcherkin, which seemed a beautiful lawn laid out for pleasure, shaded with fine old trees, of an enormous height and size, and watered by a small but very limpid brook, running over beds of pebbles as white as snow.
