402 EASTERN ETHIOPIA xxxi 



There is something very characteristic in the " click " 

 when two balls cannon: some players believe it to be 

 inimitable. Some years ago, two men in New York were 

 at billiards and the player claimed a cannon : his 

 opponent disputed it. A friend in the room supported 

 the player's claim, he " heard the click." Later on, 

 when playing had been discontinued they heard the 

 " click of contact," but it was produced by a mocking- 

 bird in the saloon. 



All billiard balls look alike to an untrained eye : they 

 seem alike to inexperienced players, but not to experts. 

 An untrue ball will run comparatively straight under a 

 smart stroke from the cue. A stealthy stroke from an 

 expert player reveals flaws in the contour of the ball, 

 or of the cloth. Imagine then the suffering which Sir 

 William Gilbert inflicts on the billiard sharp in his 

 delightful comic opera, The Mikado, when he condemns 

 him to play extravagant matches : 



In fitless finger stalls 

 On a cloth untrue, 

 With a twisted cue 

 And elliptical billiard balls. 



In mediaeval times the amount of ivory exported 

 from Africa excited the astonishment of travellers. 

 To-day the best and largest tusks come from 

 Equatorial Africa and the number exported excites the 

 curiosity of tourists. The number of tusks which 

 passed through the Sudan Customs Office during 1905 

 was 4,954, representing a value of about 42,000 

 (Government Reports). The industrial world requires 

 and obtains 600 to 800 tons of elephant ivory annually. 

 Ivory Sales are held in London four times yearly. At 

 the quarterly Ivory Sale, July, 1910, the tusks offered 

 for sale weighed 66J tons : they were imported from 

 East Africa, West Africa, Abyssinia, the Sudan, and 

 Siam. In addition to elephants' tusks there were tusks 

 from the following animals : walrus, narwhal, hippo- 

 potamus, wart-hogs, and boars : also a quarter of a ton 

 of rhinoceros horns. 



