'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From January 1865 to December 1867. (Edited by the Honorary Secretary.) Volume XVIII.' [‎8] (143/268)

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gleanings as to the
four miles across this plain, when we arrived at a scattered village con-
structed, as all the houses on the low land appeared to be, of stakes dnven
into the ground about six inches apart, so as to form an oblong, and
the interstices filled with branches of a prickly thorn and a small com
pound enclosed by a dense hedge of the same description. We slept at
‘‘Ailaat,” and the next morning proceeded on to the springs, which
we found were about four miles distant, and the road to which led
throuoh a thin wood, and afterwards up the bed of the watei-course
proceeding from the springs. As we neared the springs the water, which
about two miles down was delightfully cool, gradually became hotter,
until at the springs it exuded from a gravelly soil at a temperature
little below boiling point. The thermometers we had were only marked
to 143 deg-, and the mercury almost instantaneously rose to the top of
the tube. There are several springs exuding from a gravel bed at
several temperatures, the lowest of which was about 90, but all con
tained in a circumference just allowing our small hill tent to stand in
it. At night a long line of steam marks the line of the livulet foi about
half a mile ; and at a little distance down, it is as hot as the hand can
bear. Each margin of the stream has marked a deep biown lidge on
the sand and rocks, and led us to the supposition that there is a
considerable (quantity of iron m solution in the vatci . and its bene
ficial effects, in the alleviation of rheumatism, I myself can testify to.
Again expressing my regret at not having provided myself with in
struments for determining more satisfactorily the thermometrical range
of the water, 1 would invite your inspection of the few specimens of the
produce, arms, and manufactures of the country, which I collected
during mv stay at JMassowa j and solicit your acceptance of the
accompanving small map of North Abyssinia, in German, by M.
Werner Menzinger, which, I understood from that experienced
traveller and author, had not, as yet, been published in England.
The swords from Abyssinia, to which I invite your inspection, are from
Shoa, Amhara, and the Shiho, or low land of the Galla country. They
are universally worn on the right side, and from their great length
and unwieldy shape would appear to be anything but wieldy weapons
to be handled. The spears are from the same districts as the
swords; and the shields are those commonly used in Abyssinia and
the Galla country, and manufactured from the wild buffaloe hide.
Armed with the short sword and shield, the Galla tribe are said to