XI MONE V- CHA NGERS 1 1 3 



which fetch as much as ten to fifteen dollars. Close 

 by, other purchasers are examining the curve of an 

 Abyssinian sword in its bright red scabbard, or perhaps 

 choosing one from a pile of French blades made for the 

 Ethiopian market. I was lucky in picking up good 

 specimens of the different kinds — among them one from 

 a soldier of Leontieff's, who was boasting of the men 

 and women he had cut down with it, and another brought 

 by Marchand's force from the White Nile. Near by, 

 at another stall, are exposed for sale circular convex 

 shields of black buffalo hide, those for the populace 

 ornamented by geometrical figures stamped on the 

 leather, while those carried by officers are decorated 

 with strips and bosses of silver, or of silver-gilt for 

 the higher ranks. One of these shields may be seen 

 in the portrait of Balambaras Giorgis on p. 1 19. 



Near the top of the hill one long alley is devoted 

 to cotton goods from America, India, and Manchester. 

 Lancashire, I regret to say, supplies by far the smallest 

 quantity, for the English manufacturer will neither make 

 the quality nor supply the lengths required in xA-byssinia. 

 The money-changers' quarter is perhaps one of the 

 most striking, for instead of piles of copper coin and 

 cowries, as in India, one sees here little stacks of amole 

 — the Abyssinian currency. These are bars of crystallised 

 salt, some 10 inches long by rather more than 2 inches 

 square in the centre, with slightly tapering ends bound 

 round by a band of rush. In the capital, four of them are 

 equivalent to the dollar, but their value varies in different 

 parts of the country. Further north it gradually de- 

 creases, till at Adua I obtained fifteen for a dollar. 



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