THE DEMBELAS. 125 that they grew a great deal of millet and dhiirra. The country was very mountainous, and unsuitable for camels, of which they had none ; and he saw very little game. The Dembelas Lort Phillips and Aylmer saw were quite light-coloured, and better clothed than most of the nomad Arabs, and, of course, far more so than the Base, who are literally nearly naked. They had bare, shaved heads ; and one man carried a gun, and actually wore a felt wide-awake hat, with the brim turned down like an Irishman's. It would be curious to know where he got it,— possibly from the Marquis Antinori ! They wore no sandals ; and this, some of our men declared, was a proof that they were Tigre Abyssinians, as they said they never wore them, and that the Dembelas did.

Some of our men also asserted, that while amdn'' with the Base and Arabs meant making friends, or peace, these people understood the word to signify unconditional surrender : ''take all we have, only spare our lives." Those of our men who pretended to know any thing of the language of the Dembelas made this statement, and said that it was unfortunate that none of the men with Aylmer and Lort Phillips could speak the language. It is next to impossible to get at the truth in matters of this kind. It is very certain that none of the men with them knew any thing of the "lingo," but I doubt whether any one in- the camp did. Our first impulse was to start off after these people, and we offered Sheik Kudul money for men to go with us ; but he would not give us any, and, on second thoughts, we decided that it was impossible to follow them into their mountains. At the least, it would have meant abandoning the baggage to the Base, who would, of course, have walked off with every thing left behind. This sheik stuck to it, that these people were Tigre Abyssinians ; and, as he had previously declared they