Part 9 of 16: Lasta Province
We had met no one during the morning's march, and on the top we came across a number of countrymen with their flocks and produce bound for Socota market; they eagerly demanded of us if the road was safe, as they had also heard of the revolt of the official near Dildi. We told them that Avete was also supposed to be closing the road, but they said they did not mind him as he was a friend of theirs, and they went on.
We must have passed many hundreds of people after this. The majority of the people went on, but some who did not know Avete, returned, and from one of them I purchased five good fat sheep for a dollar.
THE REAL HIGHLANDS
On reaching the top of the downs, we stopped for a rest after the climb from the low
country, and to take our midday repast, which on this occasion was native bread, hard
boiled eggs and onions; such strong ones that they brought tears to my eyes.
There was a bitter cold wind blowing, making sitting in the sun behind a big
juniper tree most pleasant.
The scenery had entirely changed, and we were surrounded by junipers, ericas and other moorland plants, and long festoons of orchella or "old man's beard" moss hanging from the branches of the trees. Harebells, bilberries, and giant thistles nearly worthy to be called trees, showed that we had come into higher regions.
I never remember feeling so cold as I did that night. The Somalis and the Tigrean Abyssinians were miserable and made a fire big enough to roast an ox with. On looking out of my tent in the morning, everything was white with hoar frost and a thin coating of ice on a puddle. The Abyssinians lay huddled up together with their feet nearly in the embers of the large fire. At about nine o'clock the sun broke through the clouds and put some warmth into us.
We got away about ten o'clock for an unknown destination, and as not one of our party knows the country, we had to engage a guide. We had great difficulty in procuring one, as they of course think it an unfriendly action to take a big party like we are now composed of, to a village at which they have friends, with the chance of the soldiers pillaging them.
The Choum of the district, who had been absent, overtook us and told the guide to take us to Artemata, which was only about twelve miles off, and the march I shall remember as long as I live owing to the lovely scenery, the glorious lights and shades and the peculiar effect of the sun on the cloudbanks; and for the many samples of climate met with; frost and sleet, rain and hail, sunshine and cloud, with two thunderstorms - At one moment everything bright and clear, and at another everything obscured and so misty that it was impossible to see more than three or four yards ahead.
LAND OF A THOUSAND WATERFALLS
A puff of wind came from the south, and in a few minutes it cleared and the view was a
lovely one; looking up the canyon with its enormous lining of rocks and boulders. At
the head of the gorge was a magnificent stream of water broken into numerous
cascades. It then flowed tranquilly over fairly level ground for about a hundred yards
when it plunged down as a splendid waterfall into a deep abyss.
On the opposite side three other fairly-sized waterfalls were coming down the broken sides of the mountains, one of them making a clear plunge of several hundreds of feet. Another small, feathery waterfall fell from ridge to ridge, and then made a nearly sheer drop off into the depths below.
The mountain side was covered with big ericas, gevaras, giant thistles, gorse and tufts of fern, and the grass and moorland was dotted all over with wild flowers. We caught a glimpse of the black gureza, and here and there a klipspringer antelope bounded across the path.
We slipped more than walked to the bottom of the canyon and got drenched by the spray and mist from the waterfalls and commenced the terrible climb up the other side. This gorge marks the boundary between the Wag Choum's governate and that of Ras Woly, the governor of Yejju.
SNOWY MORNING
A cold, raw, cheerless morning with thin ice everywhere, as from this altitude we look
down upon Abouna-Joseph mountain, supposed to be over ten thousand feet. About
seven o'clock it commenced to snow and lasted for about an hour, when it turned to
cold rain, which speedily changed the white landscape to green.
We had a long march of about twenty miles to do from Artemata to get off the down land. It soon turned out a glorious day, with bright sunshine and a nearly cloudless sky, and we had a splendid view towards Dildi, and the Wadela and Delanta plateaux.
Soon after leaving the village we came to the road that runs to Lalibela, and some of the churches of this town were visible. It was about ten miles distant and much below us. Here a very conspicuous feature in the scenery were the long walls of quartz that ran in irregular lines across the open downs. The downs were nearly treeless, and the only plant of any size was the gevara - long lines of them standing up on the ridges against the skyline...
The road led down from the south of the Lasta plateau, and the road made by the English [at the time of Meqdela] to the Tacazze river could easily be seen for miles. At the first village of Wandatch, the escort began entering the houses and seeing what they could steal; the men of the hamlet were all away in the fields, and the women were unprotected.
BRAVE WOMEN
I was very amused at seeing three of the men that entered one of the houses rush out
very quickly with swarms of bees encircling their heads, and then two women and a girl
rush out and go into a neighbouring house and shut the door. Two of them were very
fair, nearly white, and as soon a I got safely away from the bees, I made inquiries about
them and what had taken place.
I found that the women had deliberately upset the bee hives inside the house so as to drive the soldiers away, and a very effective mode it was, as the bees knowing the occupants of the house, had gone for the strangers.
One of the soldiers had both eyes closed from the stings, and his head was greatly swollen, another had one eye closed and the third was also badly stung. They threatened all sorts of things against the women but they did not dare go near the village again.
The man who was most badly stung looked an awful sight, and on looking at himself in my looking-glass he promptly dropped it with fright and said all sorts of things against the women. The girls at Kuvena also chafed him and asked him if he liked Wandatch honey.
INGLESE
The nearly white woman and her daughter owed their colour to some little accident
during the 1868 [Meqdela] expedition. There had been a camp at Wandatch, and it
was also a Commisseriat station, where quantities of stores were purchased, and the
fair woman was one of the results of the march to Magdala. She was vey nice looking
and went by the name of "Inglese." Her daughter was a pretty, pert little thing about ten
years old, but not nearly as fair as her mother, who would have passed as an
Englishwoman.
BRAVE BOYS
Just before crossing the Tacazze, one of the soldiers forming the escort commenced
stealing the peas and beans belonging to the peasants, and on a small boy trying to
prevent him, the soldier beat him. Another boy then ran up and hit the soldier over the
head with a quarter-staff and felled him to the ground.
There was only the petty officer nearby, and he rode back to complain to Dedjatch Ali, the governor of the district, where Hailou and the rest of the escort were having a feast. I put the wounded soldier on a mule and went after my luggage where all my bandages were kept, telling the two boys to run away and hide. So accordingly they went away due west in an opposite direction as hard as they could. I admired their pluck and had no sympathy for the soldier. It was dusk when Hailou came back and too late for him to go back to get the villagers punished.
MORE SCENIC BEAUTY
Next morning we made an early start from Kuvena and it was bitter cold. We halted for
lunch just vis-a-vis to the first sources of the Tacazze.
Eyela Kudus Michael church is splendidly situated and the whole district is one of the most picturesque spots in Abysiinia, being well wooded and full of the most enormous Kuosso trees. These trees were in full bloom and looked very handsome with their Indian red-gnarled stems, bright green leaves and pinkish and bluish mauve masses of flowers.
After leaving Eyela we continued our march due east up the valley, the lower level being nearly knee-deep with splendid grass. Large herds of cattle, droves of horses and flocks of sheep dotted the landscape. The sides of the hills were covered with barley, the wind making movements in the thick crops like ripples on an emerald sea, and above all, the curious gevaras standing like sentinels on the skyline.
The grass ended in a quaking bog into which the mules sank up to their fetlocks; springs of water were everywhere. A tiresome climb ended in harder ground, and then the rock was reached and further, the dividing ridge between the Tacazze and the waters going west from those going east.
Nothing could have been more lovely than the view. To the north, the highlands of the Tacazze sources, then a little further west the tiers of Lasta downs, due west, the far- off mountains of Begemeder. To the south, the open plateaux of Wadela rising towards the southwest.
Turning to the east and walking for about fifty yards, one comes to the top of a huge precipice, and what a different picture meets the eye. A sheer drop of many hundred feet and then terrace upon terrace of barley and wheat. Due east, a break in the mountains reveals a glimpse of the simmering hot Danakil low country. Two silvery waterfalls drop down the ridge from the highland.
I sat on this ridge for over two hours watching with intense interest the lovely scenery to be seen on either side. Certainly the sources of the Tacazze are most lovely and make up a bit of territory any country might be proud of...
A BOTANICAL PARADISE
The descent from the highlands was part of the way a terrible scramble. The more we
descended, the weather became warmer, and there is a most marked change in the
vegetation and the surroundings. At the top of the canyon, the road runs through a
splendid erica forest, these trees give place to juniper, shumac and others that flourish
in a trifle warmer climate, till at last the trees consist of wanza, wild olive, different
sycamore, figs, and a very pretty tree called by the Abyssinians the Waiva, which grows
to a large size and is very spreading and shady.
We again got into the country of the giant mimosa trees and the vegetation at last got nearly tropical, large groves of bananas surrounding many of the houses. The wild flowers were a gorgeous sight and of many varied and beautiful descriptions; the wild, climbing, pink pea covering the forest trees to the topmost branches and hanging down in festoons of bloom. Orchids of many sorts new to me, staghorn ferns grasping the trunks of the trees, and the wild asparagus with its feathery fronds on the banks of each side of the road, ferns of all sorts, maiden hair and Lygodiums being very common with clumps of Abutilions and white Daturas with their trumpet shaded flowers.
Other common roadside plants such as the Kalancole with its various coloured flowers: pink, yellow, orange, scarlet, purple, and striped yellow and scarlet, and purple and white, abounded, and the ditches were full of the cyperus palm-shaped plant.
I do not think in such a short distance, I ever came across before such a varied and wonderful collection of plants that Kew [The Royal English Botanical Garden] could not equal in the gayest season of the year, and Ceylon at its best could not rival.
AN EVEN MORE LOVELY SPOT
The canyon then opened out into a wide valley, and the scenery before me quite
beggared description. Seven waterfalls were to be seen at one point, coming down in
cascades and mighty falls from the surrounding highlands, and the valley lay streched
out in front, a green gem surruounded by a setting of grey weather-worn granite.
On an eminence in the centre of the Sanca valley was the church of Geshobar Abo, with its market-green below. A network of irrigation channels came from every waterfall the moment they got into lower ground, and dozens of groups of houses, with their sheltering trees and hedges studded the sides of the hills and the slightly higher parts of the valley.
I never enjoyed seeing a view more and I do not believe that this world can produce a more lovely and prosperous spot, nature having blessed this place with her choicest gifts...