In about an hour and a-half, we were again crossing the little stream which flows at the base of the hill on which Farree stands; and I was soon seated in my old quarters, whilst Brekka went to obtain for me the expected note. When he returned, he brought me an order to go to the Wallasmah myself, as he wanted to see me; and who occupied a house upon one of the little eminences opposite to mine. I was not long in presenting myself in obedience to this summons, and found that gentleman sitting upon a large oxskin spread upon the ground, paring his toe nails with an old pocket knife. As I came round the low stone fence against which he leaned, he cast his eyes upon me, and growled a very sinister kind of salutation, asking me in broken Arabic how I did. I now requested him to give me the letter from Ankobar, but he only shook his head. I asked to see the messenger, and with a chuckle of triumphant cunning, he pointed with the open knife to the fastened door of an outhouse, an action which I readily interpreted to mean, “He is there, in prison.” I did not say a word more, but walked away in high dudgeon, overturning a rude Abyssinian who, with spear and shield pushed against me, as if to prevent my exit when I made my way out through a little wicket in the stick enclosure that surrounded the house. The worst of my situation was, that I had no friends near, all the Hy Soumaulee and Tajourah people being according to custom, obliged to locate themselves during their stay in Shoa, in a little town called Channo, situated about two miles to the north-east of Farree, where they are compelled to leave their shields and spears when they go farther into the interior of the country. I had to send for any of these to come to me, but either it was too late in the day, being after sunset, or orders had been issued to the contrary, for I could induce no one to take a message from me either to Ohmed Medina or Carmel Ibrahim. I was obliged, therefore, to remain quiet for the night, being determined, however, on the morrow to escape into the Adal country, and carry the news back, which otherwise might be a long time in reaching Aden, of the actual condition of things in Shoa; where, instead of the English being courted and caressed, as was believed to be the case when I was in Tajourah, they were, in fact, the objects of the most jealous suspicion, and subjected to the most tyrannical surveillance, if not actually in prison.