82 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



lage called Halai, the firft we had feen fince our leaving 

 Mafuah. It is chiefly inhabited by poor fervants and fhep- 

 herds keeping the flocks of men of fubftance living in the 

 town of Dixan, 



The people here are not black, but of a dark complexion 

 bordering very much upon yellow. They have their head 

 bare ; their feet covered with fandals ; a goat's fkin upon 

 their moulders; a cotton cloth about their middle ; their 

 hair fhort and curled like that of a negroe's in the weft part 

 of Africa ; but this is done by art, not by nature, each man 

 having a wooden flick with which he lays hold of the 

 lock and twifls it round a fcrew, till it curls in the form he : 

 defires*. The men carry in their hands two lances and a 

 large fhield of bull's hide. A crooked knife, the blade in 

 the lower part about three inches broad, but diminifhing to 

 a point about fixteen inches long, is fluck at their right fide, 

 in a girdle of coarfe cotton cloth, with which their middle 

 is fwathed, going round them fix times. 



All forts of cattle are here in great plenty ; cows and bulls 

 of exquifite beauty, especially the former ; they are, for the* 

 moft part, completely white, with large dewlaps hanging 

 d .wn to their knees ; their heads, horns, and hoofs per- 

 fectly well-turned ; the horns wide like our Lincolnfhire 

 kine ; and their hair like filk. Their fheep are large, and 

 all black. I never faw one of any other colour in the pro- 

 vince of Tigre. Their heads are large ; their ears remarka- 

 bly 



* I apprehend this is the fame inftrument ufed by the ancients, and cenfurtd by the pro- 

 phets, which, in our trupflation, is rendered crifping-pins. Ifa. chap. iii. vet. 22. 



