AN UNCOMFORTABLE ROAD. Gl 



afraid I should be obliged to construct one. So 

 far from the monarch supposing- mills to be worked 

 by demons, he never troubled himself so much, in 

 a conversation with me, as he did to shew how 

 closely he had observed every part of the mill that 

 had been put up, to learn its economy, and the 

 manner in which its effects were produced. 



The most laborious employment of the women of 

 Abyssinia is grinding flour. Windmills to perform 

 this duty would diminish considerably the demand 

 for female slaves in that country, and less encou- 

 ragement would be, therefore, given to the internal 

 slave-trade of Africa, whilst the prohibition of the 

 export of slaves by Mahomedans from the eastern 

 coast, would extinguish the greater part of the 

 infernal traffic at once. 



Immediately after crossing the Airahra we 

 commenced a most villanous ascent. I believe 

 that, to be in daily use, and traversed by hundreds 

 of individuals, the Tchakkah road is unequalled in 

 the world for steepness, roughness, and everything 

 else that can contribute to make a road difficult and 

 unsafe. Now a brawling stream, rushing down into 

 the Airahra, covers with a slippery slime the bald 

 face of the rock ; here loose crumbling stones 

 treacherously detach themselves from beneath the 

 struggling hoofs of the mule ; and there an actual 

 cataract, of at least eight feet high, has to be 

 scrambled over, splashing through spray and the 

 flying gravel dislodged by the ascent. Zigzag 



