[Footnote 116: Mr. Dupuis’s account of this place has been published in Sir W. Garstin’s Report (p. 219), and is in the following terms: “This is a very remarkable spot, and the probable site of large canal works in the future, if such are ever undertaken on the Atbara. Just above the “meshra,” or watering-place, the Atbara flows in a narrow deep trench, perfectly straight for a couple of miles or so, with a width of little over one hundred metres, and a depth of about ten metres all across the pool when at summer level. The sides of this trench are nearly vertical cliffs of extremely hard granitic rock rising twenty metres or more from the water. At the meshra this trench suddenly fans out into a wide shallow channel, the pool ceases, and the river breaks up into three or four separate branches, amidst a confusion of rocky islands, and is not fully re-united into a single stream for several miles. The rocky substratum through which the river has cut its way here gives little or no indication of its presence in the level uplands, which continue as before to form an unbroken bush-covered plain of black soil up to within a couple of miles or so of the river, where it suddenly breaks into ravines.”] [Footnote 117: “Life in Abyssinia,” pp. 102, 103.] [Footnote 118: “The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia,” p. 66.] [Footnote 119: “This peculiar fly is about the size of a wasp, with an orange-coloured body, with black and white rings; the proboscis is terrific, it is double, and appears to be disproportioned, being two-thirds the length of the entire insect. When this fly attacks an animal, or man, it pierces the skin instantaneously, like the prick of a red-hot needle driven deep into the flesh. At the same time the insect exerts every muscle of its body by buzzing with its wings as it buries the instrument to its greatest depth. The blood starts from the wound immediately, and continues to flow for a considerable time; this is an attraction to other flies in great numbers, many of which would lay their eggs upon the wound.” (“The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia,” pp. 184, 185.)] [Footnote 120: “The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia,” pp. 107, 109, 110.] [Footnote 121: Water-sack. These are made from skins.] [Footnote 122: “The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia,” pp. 240, 241.] A NOTE ON THE RELIGION, CUSTOMS, ETC., OF ABYSSINIA