APPENDIX VL— ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 517 



trees, where they are filled with honey and wax by the wild bees. It may 

 be noted that the national drinks, tej and araki, are both distilled from 

 honey. 



The Abyssinian (Habashi) coffee is indigenous in Kafi'a (whence the 

 name), Gomo, Ennarea, and a number of other districts. It has a fine 

 flavour, and, if better cultivated and not handicapped by heavy duties and 

 expensive freight, might again become the staple export of the country. 

 At present it is considered inferior in aroma to that produced in Harrar, 

 which is of excellent quality, and is even preferred by connoisseurs to the real 

 Mokka. Cotton grows wild in Harrar and many parts of Abyssinia, 

 especially in the region bordering on the Blue Nile (Abbai). It is also 

 largely cultivated throughout the Abyssinian uplands, where it is woven into 

 blankets and the " shammas," w-hich form the chief part of the national 

 costume. These shammas of native manufacture arc preferred by the 

 people to all European imitations which have hitherto been put upon the 

 market. Tobacco likewise grows well in Harrar and the Galla country, 

 and is of fine quality. It is extensively smoked by the natives of these 

 provinces, but little used by the Abyssinians except in the form of snufF. 

 None is exported, though it should find a ready sale in Arabia and the 

 eastern coasts of Africa. Iron-ore abounds in Damot, Agomeder, and 

 Harrar, and is smelted locally, and manufactured into spears, knives, tools, 

 and agricultural implements. 



It will be gathered even from this brief sketch that the natural wealth 

 of the country is very considerable — the soil in many regions, and par- 

 ticularly in Harrar, being of extraordinary fertility — and that with improved 

 cultivation, a settled government, and the removal of the heavy disabilities 

 by which trade is hampered at present, the agricultural exports at least 

 might be almost indefinitely increased and a corresponding rise take place 

 in the value of imported goods. The drawbacks are the long distances 

 over which goods have to be carried, the primitive means of transport, the 

 frequent reloading, and the consequent heavy freight and interminable 

 delays. As stated above, goods are generally carried by camels from Zeila 

 or Jibuti to Gildessa, there reloaded on mules, which carry them as far as 

 Balgi (or Harrar), where they are transferred to donkeys, and thus taken 

 to Adis Ababa. A camel caravan takes from twenty to thirty days 

 between Zeila and Harrar, and thirty to forty-five days from there to Adis 

 Ababa. The journey from the capital over Debra Markos to Metemmah 

 occupies some thirty-two days ; that by Debra Tabor, Makalle, and Adua 

 to Massowah, about fifty-six. Goods can therefore come from the coast to 

 Adis Ababa in about two months, but no reliance can be placed upon this 

 estimate in any commercial venture, for the delays owing to the transfers 



