of Mitraha. At three o'clock we entered among a few hills of no consideration, and, soon after, began to coast close along the side of the lake Tzana; we saw this day a great number of hippopotami; some swimming in the lake at a small distance, some rising from feeding on the high grass in the meadows, and walking, seemingly at great leisure, till they plunged themselves out of sight. They are exceeding cautious and shy while on land, and not to be approached near enough to do execution with the best rifle-gun. At four in the afternoon we halted, and passed the night at Lamgué, a village situated a few paces from the side of the lake.
On the 19th of May we left Lamguè about six in the morning, our course south and by west, and at eight we found ourselves in the middle of twenty-five or thirty villages called Nabca, stretching for the length of seven or eight miles; a few minutes afterwards we came to the river Reb, which falls into the lake a little north-west of the place where we now were. Close by where the Reb joins the lake is a small village of Pagans, called Waito, who live quite separate from the Abyssinians, and are held by them in utter abhorrence, so that to touch them, or any thing that belongs to them, makes a man unclean all that day till the evening, separates him from his family and friends, and excludes him from the church and all divine service, till he is washed and purified on the following day. Part of this aversion is certainly owing to their manner of feeding; for their only profession is killing the crocodile and hippopotamus, which they make their daily sustenance. They have a most abominable stench, are exceedingly wan, or ill-coloured, very lean, and die often, as is said, of the lousy disease. There are, indeed, no crocodiles in the lake Tzana,owing,
