Among my visitors was the parish priest. I supposed he had come to ask alms, and sent a message intended to put off the demand, explaining that I was only the doctor of the party, and that if there was anything which he required, he must return when “the Bey” (Dupuis) came back to camp and tell him about it. To my surprise he sent an answer that he wished to see me and not the Bey, and that he was not seeking alms. That being so, I was very pleased to receive him, and found that he wanted treatment for the itch. When he had gone I took my rod and tried a fly in the muddy river; but the fish did not rise. So I gave up casting, which brought me nothing but the armache, and went out with my gun. On the swampy ground bordering the lake I shot three of the big geese that are found there in great abundance. They were for the camp larder, not for mine, as I thought the flesh rank and tough. The boys had often asked me to shoot one and give it to them. [Illustration: FORDING THE RIVER GUMARA. _See p._ 105.] On Sunday, January 18, I moved to our new camping-ground. It was a well-wooded spot, grassy and full of wild flowering plants of many kinds. This pleasant place is called Sara; it is six or seven miles distant from the lake. Game was plentiful. On the way I shot a sand-grouse, and, taking my gun in the afternoon, brought down two plovers of a kind which I had not seen before. One, probably the male bird, had excrescences of yellow skin on each side of the beak. There were snipe and quail in abundance, but I did not get within range of any. During the day a man came to me who had a splinter of wood about two inches long buried in his leg near the shin. To remove it I had to cut down a couple of inches into the flesh. My patient endured the operation without wincing. Approaching the camp on the way back, I heard tomtoms, women warbling after the manner of the country and the ringing of bells. I supposed for a moment that a stray shot of mine had injured some one and that the neighbourhood was in an uproar about it, and expected to find a demonstration in progress. But on making inquiry I learned that next day the Epiphany was celebrated, when there is a general feast and holiday throughout Abyssinia. The gathering of Habashes was in a hut near the river where they had come to be ready for the opening of the festival. This is the blessing of the water by the priest, and the people are allowed to bathe in it after the ceremony. I did not myself see that any availed themselves of the privilege. The Habashes, who had assembled near the stream, began their singular devotions at daybreak. Mansfield Parkyns witnessed the whole procedure of one of these commemoration feasts, and his lively account of it is as exact now as when it was written:—