[Footnote 28: “On one occasion we had a small adventure. We were resting one night near the summit of a mountain, when about two hours before daybreak we were awaked by a loud hubbub and the discharge of a gun. Starting to our feet, we inquired what was up, and our anxiety was increased by M. Lejean’s Arab seizing the second gun and discharging it. All I saw, for it was pitch dark, was one of the mules kicking about amongst the ashes of a half-extinguished fire, and endeavouring to extricate himself from the leather thong which bound his head to a tree. This he soon succeeded in doing, and went off at a furious rate towards the woods which clothe the sides of the mountain. I thought he had burnt himself at the fire, and that this was the cause of his breaking loose, but the rest maintained that he had been bitten by the hyenas: and they were right, for at daybreak we saw and gave chase to one of these brutes, who was still prowling about. These creatures were much bolder here than near the villages. As we were sleeping in the open air, with our faces exposed, it was fortunate for us that the hyenas preferred trying mule’s flesh to man’s. We heard afterwards that the mule had returned to Gallabat, a distance of forty miles, but was so severely bitten in the flank that he was perfectly useless.” (Dufton, “A Journey through Abyssinia,” pp. 48, 49.)] [Footnote 29: “The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia,” pp. 515, 516.] [Footnote 30: “The word ‘Habash’ (the native name for Abyssinian) means, I believe, a ‘mixture’ in the Giz language—a mixture of various qualities of corn goes by that name in some of the provinces of Tigre. It is supposed by some that a great number of Jews followed the Queen of Sheba, on her return from her visit to Solomon, and that a large colony of fugitives also took refuge in Abyssinia about the time of the destruction of the temple and the captivity. Subsequently the Greeks sent missionaries, and they were doubtless accompanied by adventurers; and the Portuguese sent a number of troops, some of whom remained in the country for many years. The variety of complexion, observable in both sexes, is, I should think, attributable to the mixture of races of which the nation is composed.” (Mansfield Parkyns, “Life in Abyssinia,” p. 224.)]