We made a start at last, a little after eleven o’clock, with the intention of travelling about eight miles, and crossed the stream below Gallabat by a stony ford, over which water a few inches deep was running. I was told that this rivulet is never quite dry, and I observed that in the bed of it were the stagnant pools usually found in the watercourses of this district. We had seen the last of the camels at Gallabat, and my companions and I now rode mules. They are the best mounts in the rough, steep, and almost trackless region which forms the western border of Abyssinia. Horses would be useless here for a journey, either to carry men or for purposes of haulage; and I doubt if ponies could anywhere be found that would be more than an encumbrance, at least for long and steady travelling at a fair pace. I believe that the Abyssinians of the Highlands use horses in their hunting expeditions and slave-raiding forays—at all events they do in their campaigns in their own country—and I have little doubt that the inhabitants of the lofty hill district adjoining the border tract, who are of mixed race and bandits by immemorial tradition, use any animals they can lay their hands on when they, like Roderick Dhu and his men, “with strong hands redeem their share” from travelling merchants or Soudanese villagers. But these are “spurts” of work, rapid dashes made by unencumbered men, not plodding regular marches, and, generally speaking, those who cannot pass through this country on a mule or an ass must use their own feet or not go at all. When my companions and I had advanced about four miles, we halted for lunch at a pleasant spot beside a brook. After the meal, some guinea-fowl were seen, and one was bagged. No doubt many more were hit and lost, as usual, among the high grass. We were in the saddle again at three o’clock, and reached our camping-ground an hour and a half later. The fever had a grip of me by this time, and I rested in bed, and soon felt the benefit of a dose of quinine. It enabled me to tackle my dinner, and that is no small boon to a sick traveller. Our boys had cut down trees and formed a zareba, within which the donkeys were penned to prevent them from straying and give them protection from hyenas.[28] I lay idly watching the camp-fires and listening to the occasional outbreaks of scuffling and braying among the donkeys, and presently fell asleep till dawn. The country which we entered on that day is full of rounded hills. Boulders crop out from the surface of them, and they are separated by ravines with sandy beds. There is no regularity in the configuration of these hills, and no uniformity in their size. When I saw them they were covered either with dried grass or with mimosa scrub.