H. said he would go out shooting, but I stopped in camp to settle things, and before dinner I went up and bathed in the hot spring. My readers must know that this is the fashionable Spa of Abyssinia, whither invalids afflicted with scrofulous and other complaints come to bathe. It is held in great repute all through the country, and I believe with good reason.
The spring was almost too hot to sit in, but I had taken up my big sponge, and douched myself well; the bath was very soothing after the heat and march of the day.
This evening it began to rain; this will give the date of the beginning of the rains in the hills lying between the sea and Asmarra, the first table-land in Abyssinia that one comes to on this road. These rains must not be confused with the rains that pour down in Abyssinia, supplying the Nile tributaries that Sir Samuel Baker has explored, and which begin in the month of May.
Directly the rain began the servants and myself busied ourselves in making a little trench around the tent; this is a precaution everybody ought to take where there is the least chance of rain. I also got my _courbatch_[4] and thrashed the tent well all round. The reader will, doubtless, wonder why I did this, but it is an old soldier's dodge, and the reason for it is that it makes the threads of the canvas--which, in hot countries, become shrunken and open--to close together, so that, after the application of the _courbatch_, the tent, instead of getting leaky with the rain, becomes more waterproof than before; a large pliable bundle of twigs will do just as well. H. came in, having shot a small bird or two for his collection, and having seen some pig down the watercourse.
[3] It is not a necessary coincidence that if the back becomes sore the swelling should come on, as I have seen several cases where there were no outward signs of soreness, but still where large swellings were forming.
[4] The _courbatch_ is a whip made of hippopotamus hide, and used in Egypt and in the provinces belonging to that country. It is with this whip that malefactors and offenders against the law are chastised. Every stroke of it, if well laid on, will cut into the flesh.
GENERAL KIRKHAM -- DIK-DIK -- AN ABYSSINIAN HOUSE -- A SUCCESSFUL DODGE -- EGYPTIAN OUTPOSTS -- A PET SHEEP -- SPORTSMAN'S PARADISE -- LOST IN A MIST -- A "NASTY CROPPER" -- SAFE IN CAMP -- DIGGING FOR PIGS -- A LUCKY SHOT -- A SHOWER BATH.