After the first civilities were over, I asked the governor of Waalia all the questions that were needful about the state of the roads and the country, and whether the Shangalla ever made an attempt upon Tcherkin? They said, All was peace; that the people came and went to the market without being interrupted. They laughed at the question about the Shangalla. Ayto Confu, they said, sometimes went down and destroyed many of that people, and brought others away as slaves; but the Shangalla were not men to attack a place where there was a number of horse, nor to climb mountains to destroy houses well stored with fire-arms. Have you, said I, seen nobody pass by from Ayto Confu lately? About four or five days ago, answered he, a servant was here, with orders to have victuals ready for you; who also told us, that he would come himself in three or four days after. I heard also, that his servant Ammonios had gone round Nara to take possession of some villages the king had given Ozoro Esther, and that he had with him a number of horse and foot, and several Ozoros, going to Tcherkin, but they had gone the upper road, consequently had not come this way. Is there no danger, said I, in passing _Dav-Dohha_? Why, at Dav-Dohha, said he, there is danger, it is a bad place, nobody passes it on horseback; but I see your horses are shod with iron, which none in this country are; however, to avoid all danger, you had better lead your horses and mules, and walk on foot, it is not far. I could not help bursting out into a fit of laughter at the fancied danger that attended us at Dav-Dohha; and, as I saw this disconcerted our informant, and that he thought he had said something wrong, I told him briefly what had passed at meeting with the two men upon the road. He laughed very heartily at this in his turn. "That man did not stop here, says he, and who he is I know not; but whoever he is, he is a liar, and a beast of the field. All the people of Dav-Dohha are our relations, and Ayto Confu's servants; if there had been any body to attack you, there would have been found here people to defend you. What signifies his ordering us to furnish you with victuals, if he was to suffer your throats to be cut before you came to eat them? I will answer for you between this and Tcherkin; after that, all is wilderness, and no man knows if he is to meet friend or foe."