The Washington times., 1935-11-27
|. n. 5. SCRIBE
FIGHTS WILDS
FETHIOPIA
Sees Female Baboons
Rescue Male 1900
Feet in the Air
By H. r. KNICKERBoCKER
Copyright. 1885. by International
News Service)

News service)
DESSYE, Ethiopia, Nov. 25 Ode
layed), Q.N.SO.-For three days
after the League Of Nations en-
forced sanctions against Italy to
prevent her continuing her inva-
sion Of Ethiopia, we drove through
the Ethiopian bush attempting to
reach the front.
Today, continuing before day
break, we were reflecting on the
Leagues efforts, when our truck
suddenly sank hub deep in a mud
hole.
The mishap seemed to parallel
the Leagues efforts, which al
though made with the best Of in
tentions, constantly sink into a
mud hole.
But it doesn't need political
symbolism to make this trip inter
esting.
A Tricky Road
After we heaved the truck out
of the hole, we rolled along at a
height of $4,000 feet on a narrow
path cut in the mountainside and
down an incline at such speed
that it seemed the overburdened
truck had run away.
Racing ke a toboggan toward
a vast plain, two Of us presently
saw a chance to leap out to make
pictures. The native chauffeur
gritted his teeth as the truck
pulled up with the radiator stick
ing out over a precipice with a
sheer drop of 5000 feet.
Undoubtedly that trail to DesSye
is the most precipitous automobile
road in the world, and it is filled
with hairpin turns.
So sharp was the grade that
we had to stick stones under the
wheels to keep the truck station
airy while we were looking below
into the terrifying depths, losing
ourselves in wonder at the beauty
Of the landscape.
Bull BabOon Rescued
Suddenly the caravan leader,
Leo Thess, spotted q great bull
baboon chattering impudently on
the crest of the mountain. With
one long shot he brought down
| the savage dOg.monkey.
Fatally hit, the baboon screamed,
and from all sides came females,
and he was lifted to their should
ers and carried off.
Entering the guinea fowl
country, Movie Camerman Ariel
Varges, with a yell of delight,
levelled his shotgun and fired
from the moving truck, bagging
five.
The chauffeur let &C the steer
ing wheel and clapped his hands
with Joy, forgetting the tooth
ache that had plagued him much
of the trip.
We had no water, and as dusk
approached we did not know
where we could find any. Every
revolution of the motor brought
us closer to the implacably saw
age, hellish. Danakil desert.
Finally we induced a native
warrior, with a promise of rifle
cartridges. to take us to well
Guinea Fowl Meal
That night we ate guinea fowl
broiled by Varges, but about mid
night, when we needed more water.
we were told that we could never
get our native boy to bring it even
from the we'll only 400 yards away
due to his fear of going out in the
darkness.
But water Is more important
than risk, so, equipping two of the
boys with MauSers, we all started
for the water hole. It was a
hlzzare experience, climbing into
a cave 800 feet deep to reach the
well, where we squatted with rifles
while the boy clambered back to
the surface with bottles filled with
the sulphurouS water.
At 1 a. M, under the stars, we
travelled back to the camp, while
the eyes of jungle beasts blazed
the reflection of our searchlights
and Europe and Italy and the war
seemed as far away from us as
they were from the native boys
who silently accompanied US to
our Starlit camp.