Masara, Mahomet, Wat Gamma, and Bacheet,
formed the establishment of Ehetilla, which was the
Arab name of our locality. Bacheet. was an inveterate
sportsman, and was my constant and sole attendant
when shooting; his great desire was to accompany
me in elephant-hunting, when he promised to carry
one of my spare rifles as a trusty gun-bearer, and he
vowed that no animal should ever frighten him
A few extracts from my journal written at that
time will convey a tolerable idea :of the place and
our employments.
“ September 23 — Started for the Settite river. In
about four hours’ good marching N.N.E. through a
country of grass and mimosa bush that forms the high
land between that river and the Atbara, I reached the
Settite about a mile from the junction. The river is
about 250 yards wide, and flows through a broken
valley of innumerable hillocks and deep ravines of
about five miles in width, precisely similar in character
to that of the Atbara; the soil having been
denuded by the rains, and carried away by the floods
of the river towards the Nile. The heat was intense;
there was no air stirring; a cloudless sky and a sun
like a burning-glass. We saw several nellut (Tauro
tragus strepsiceros), but these superb antelopes were
too wild to allow a close approach. The evening
drew near, and we had nothing to eat, when fortunately
I espied a fine black-striped gazelle (Gazella
Dorcas), and with tne greatest caution I stalked it to
within about a hundred paces, and made a successful