HORSE- AND MULE-MART 



hole for. the head and red leather edges), a native rope 

 for the mule- loads, an iron sickle, matches, or native 

 cooking-pots, I could go straight to the place where each 

 was to be obtained. Besides all the commodities I 

 have named, there were to be found, each in its own 

 market, coffee-beans, sugar, w^ax and honey, tej and tala 

 (jjjead and beer), stored in great jars called gombos, 

 large shawls called shammas, iron ploughshares, knives 

 and spear -heads, rhinoceros -hide whips, bamboos for 

 tent-poles, bundles of split wood lo feet long for building 

 huts, little bundles of lonor tou^h crrass for thatchinsf or 

 larger ones for fodder, overgrown faggots for fuel, 

 tobacco for chewing and in the form of snuff (for the 

 Abyssinian does not smoke), every kind of grain for 

 bread, and condiments for flavouring. On a flat stretch 

 of ground on the southern side of the market is the mule- 

 and horse -fair ; here may be seen horses galloped by 

 wild-looking men, with their shammas streaming behind 

 them and the cruel rhinoceros -hide whip in full play. 

 Presently the owner espies a likely purchaser, and 

 instantly the horse is stopped and thrown back on his 

 haunches by the terrible bit. Mules are being ex- 

 amined for traces of old sore backs, and the air is 

 filled with the shoutino-, wranorlinq-, and barcraininQ- 

 inseparable from the buying or selling of a horse. The 

 Abyssinians have an excellent rule, that, before a 

 bargain is complete, the vendor and the purchaser 

 must together lead their beast before an official, who 

 registers their names, witnesses the paying over of the 

 money, and exacts a fee from both parties to the con- 

 tract. No horse may be sold for more than fifty dollars, 



