My friends returned to camp rather later than they had expected, but were well pleased by the result of the day’s work. They found that at this season of the year the discharge from the lake into the river was at the rate of forty-two cubic metres to the second. And they brought some guinea-fowl to the larder. The future proprietor of the Blue Nile Hotel and pension on Lake Tsana will always be able to offer his guests fish and poultry. On February 1 my companions started on foot, accompanied by Johannes, a pack-mule and some boys, to see the first falls in the course of the Blue Nile, and the ancient stone bridge which spans the river at this point.[86] These falls are twenty-one miles below the outlet of the stream from the lake. I remained in charge of the camp, and, to wile away the time, took our boat out upon the lake. This caused a great sensation among the villagers, who had seen nothing of my friends’ excursion in it the previous day. The Habashes flocked to the edge of the water, but whenever I rested on the oars for a few moments, they rushed screaming into their huts. Apparently they regarded me as a naval force, and thought I meant to carry Bahardar Georgis by a _coup de main_. Perhaps they remembered King Theodore’s descent upon the island of Dek. “He was in pursuit, it appears, of a refractory chief under Ras Ali, who had taken refuge on the island. In less than twenty-four hours he had two hundred canoes constructed, in which he suddenly appeared off the place with five hundred chosen warriors.”[87] I should think that this was the only occasion on which the _tankoa_ was used in war, and have a feeling of compassion for the five hundred warriors. We noticed that at this place the children seemed especially frightened of white men. Perhaps their mothers used us as bogeys to terrify those that were troublesome. We found that we could soon regain the confidence of the people by giving them any little picture, no matter of what; prints from advertisements of furniture or clothes served quite well. They received these with delight. On the next day (February 2) my friends returned to camp, having made short work of their tramp of forty-two miles. Crawley had shot an oribi, a species of gazelle, on the way to the falls, and Dupuis secured one on the march back. The former had served as tasty rations to the party on the journey, the latter came into our larder, and the prospect of venison after a long course of guinea-fowl was very pleasant.