The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-02-17
Wonderful Caves, Called the Palace
of the Great God of the GaIlas,
Found by an American.
MOUNTAIN FOLLOWED OUT
TRIBUTARY OF THE RIVER JUBA
FLOWING THROUGH THE OPENING.
Funny Abyssininn RuIer-CustOms OF
BarbarOus PeOple-COld-Weathe
Sports in England.

Copyright. 1895, by the Associated Press0
NEW YORK, Feb. 16.--The Associated
Press has received letter from DIR. A. Dom
aldson Smith, of Philadelphia, in which
news of the Lake Rudolph eastern Africa
expedition, is given up to Dec. IA, 1894. The
letter Is dated from the Shebeyli river, near
Somoli land. He relates the details OF his
encounter with Dodjas Walda Gubbra, an
Abyssnian ruler. who had exterminated
enslaved the native Calais and who pre-
vented DIR. Smith and his party from pro-
ceedng. The Doctor writes:
''Da Gubbra proved himself to be one of
the funniest and wittiest old men i'm
Imaginable. His wife and daughter and
principal female slaves had their eye brows
removed and large crescents tattooed in
blue ink over their eyes. They do not cook
their meat, but eat it Immediately after
the animal is killed. They always conceal
their faces when eating drinking, and
the sight of lot of Ayssinans squatted
about dead bullock, with their cloaks
thrown completely over their heads is
very amusing. They have many curious
customs fbesides these. Such thing as
morality is unknown among them. They
seem to delight in cruelty treating their
slaves ] have frequently seen young girls
kicked and beaten for quite trifing Of
lenses.
I'VE made rich discovery on our way
south. / had heard of river that ran I'M
der mountain where the great god of the
Calais (Waco) had carved palace for him
self. AS we We're not far from it, Mr..
Gillette and / made an excuse that we
wished to shoot elephants. which abounded
In that direction. We made a hard push,
and. to our surprise, discovered the most
beautiful subterrancan passage it would be
possible to imagine. A large tributary of
the river Juba had carved a way for itself
under mountain mile in length. On
the other side OF the stream were great
vaulted chambers from twenty-five to forty
feet high and supported on massive col
umns. The columns were most ornately
carved by the waters, and many of them
uniting would form long arched passages.
The mountain wAs followed out a great
distance on the other side of the stream.
have named these the Caves of Wynd-
lawn i shall publish an illustrated ac-
count of them on my return to England, as
1 believe them to be the most remarkable
caves of the kind in the world.
1.-THE greater part OF our journey has been
through the richest country, from an ag-
ricultural point of view, have ever seen,
and the climate would suit a European
farmer exactly. Everywhere there were
the signs Of much previous cultivation, but
there is little land cultivated at present.
The owners have been killed OFF, as is too
often evident by the human skeletons lying
about. For every village that is inhabited
there are at least six that are without
owners All about these villages there are
large areas that were highly cultivated five
years ago. and even more recently. before
the Abyssinians grabbed the land and
slaughtered the defenseless natives We
have a lopg journey before us and it will
probably be several months before we
reach Lake Rudolph.