180 NORTH-EAST AFEICA. 



The town of Massawah, the Arabian Medsawa, or Mussawah, and the Abyssinian 

 Mutogna, occupies a coral islet about 3,300 feet long from east to west, but scarcely 

 more than 1,000 feet broad from north to south. Stone houses of Arab con- 

 struction, and branch huts, are crowded together on this rock, which is connected 

 by a dyke with the still smaller island of Taulud. Taulud itself is attached to the 

 mainland by means of a pier about 5,000 feet long, over which is carried the pipe 

 by which the cisterns of Massawah are supplied with water from M'Kulu. But 

 both aqueduct and pier, like the barracks, fortifications, and other buildings 

 built some twenty years ago under the direction of Munzinger Pacha, are in a very 

 dilapidated condition. As in their own country, the Egyptians understand the art 

 of constructing, but neglect the duty of repairing, their public buildings. The 

 Abyssinian trade with the Greek, Banian, and other foreign merchants settled at 

 Massawah is conducted by means of caravans. These caravans, laden chiefly with 

 the valuable products of the Galla country — cofEee, gold, and white wax — set out at 

 the end of winter, so as to cross the Takkazeh before the floods. They take two or 

 three months to accomplish the journey, and return at the end of the autumn, 

 resuming their annual journey the following spring. In 1861 the value of the 

 Abyssinian exchanges, including slaves, through the port of Massawah, was 

 estimated at £40,000, and twenty years thereafter, in 1881, they had risen to 

 £280,000. The chief exports are skins and butter for Arabia, and mother-o'-pearl ; 

 that of ivory has greatly fallen off. Mules of Abyssinian stock are also exported 

 to the plantations of Mayotte and the Mascarenhas Islands. Early in the year 1885 

 Massawah and the surrounding district was occupied by the Italians, with the 

 consent of the English and Egyptian Governments. 



The Dahlak Islands. 



The large coraline islands of Dahlak east of the Gulf of Massawah, the chief 

 of which are Dahlak and Nora, have lost nearly all the commercial importance 

 they enjoyed before the Turkish rule. At that time they were inhabited by a 

 Christian population of Abyssinian origin, whose chapels are still to be seen, and 

 whose dialect, although in a corrupt form, is still current in the archipelago. At 

 present the people, all Mohammedans, number 1,500, whose only resource is the 

 milk and flesh of their goats, and the products of their fisheries. The Persian and 

 Indian traders make yearly voyages to these islands to purchase the pearl oysters 

 from the fisheries of the surrounding bays ; the depot stands on the eastern shore 

 of the larger island, at the village of Domolo. Like the pearl-divers of Bahrein, 

 those of Dahlak never commence operations till after the rains, as they say that 

 the pearly secretion is formed by the mixing of the fresh with the salt water. 

 The natives also fish for the turtle, but neglect the sponges with which the bed of 

 the sea is here thickly covered. The people of Dahlak and the surrounding 

 archipelago possess large herds of camels, asses, and goats, which they allow to 

 roam in a wild state over the island, or else confine to desert islands. On one of 

 these islets are even found a few cows. 



