UP THE RIVER.

visited the country iu i86i, has described the manner in which the Hamrans kill the largest animals, by hamstringing them with a single stroke of their swords. I never saw this done, and fancy, as the game has decreased, these Hamran Nimrods have decreased too. Those we saw obtained most of their game by means of traps, some of which are very ingenious inventions. They frequently kill hippopotami by means of harpoons, and the men who procure them in this way are called haivartis. These animals are very scarce now in this part of the Settite ; when I visited the river in 1878, they were numerous in places where they are now almost extinct. The day before we arrived, one had been wounded in the pool above our encampment ; but he had disappeared during the night, and had probably gone higher up the river.

As soon as we had sent the men on their various errands, we started farther up the river, and passed the place where Khor Meheteb joins the Settite ; at this point we cut off a great bend in the river, and crossed it at a ford, having gone about two miles across country. Here we had an altercation with our men, who wanted to stop ; but we insisted on continuing the journey, and, after cutting off another great bend about four miles farther on, struck the left bank of the river, and encamped.

Nothing could be more desolate than the appearance of the country at this point : it was more mountainous than lower down the river ; but there was scarcely a vestige of green to be seen, and the river was narrower, and its bed very rocky.

In one part it forced its way between great basalt rocks for a mile or two, the water being very deep, and it being impossible to get to the edge of it, as the rocks rose sheer out of the water on either side. We saw the footprints of buffaloes and hippopotami.