The region which we had now reached is, as I have said, impassable in the wet season, and Abyssinia is then impregnable as far as its western boundary is concerned. The violence of the storms and the rush of rain are such that it is doubtful whether even a line of telegraph posts and wires could be carried through the district with a likelihood that it would be in working order for any length of time between May and September. The floods would probably be as prohibitive to an underground system of wires as to one overhead, and in both cases allowance would have to be made for the extreme electrical disturbances which often occur at brief intervals during the rainy season. I have already referred to the raids that take place from the Abyssinian side when the country can be traversed, and will only add here that they are carried out frequently enough to maintain a supply of slaves for all persons in the country whose prosperity raises them above the degree of a peasant. For example, when we reached Gallabat on the return journey we found that eighty-three Soudanese had been carried off during an incursion which had been made since we left the place. It is needless to insist on the difficulties that may arise from raids of this kind undertaken by people who are, nominally at least, subjects of the Negus. I can testify that slaves are found everywhere in Western Abyssinia, but among the female victims I never had the good fortune to behold one of the class which impressed Sir Samuel Baker so pleasantly at Gallabat. He wrote, “On my return to camp I visited the establishments of the various slave merchants; these were arranged under large tents formed of matting, and contained many young girls of extreme beauty, ranging from nine to seventeen years of age. These lovely captives, of a rich brown tint, with delicately formed features and eyes like those of the gazelle, were natives of the Galla, on the borders of Abyssinia, from which country they are brought by the Abyssinian traders to be sold for the Turkish harems. Although beautiful, these girls are useless for hard labour; they quickly fade away and die unless kindly treated. They are the Venuses of that country, and not only are their faces and figures perfection, but they become extremely attached to those who show them kindness. There is something peculiarly captivating in the natural grace and softness of these young beauties, whose hearts quickly respond to those warmer feelings of love that are seldom known among the sterner and coarser tribes. They are exceedingly proud and high-spirited, and are remarkably quick at learning. At Khartoum, several of the Europeans of high standing have married these charming ladies, who have invariably rewarded their husbands by great affection and devotion. The price of one of these beauties of nature at Gallabat was from twenty-five to forty dollars.”[29] CHAPTER V