78 SINGULAR KIND OF FUEL. 



kind of merchandize that is brought into Shoa. 

 These slaves are employed generally as cutters of 

 wood ; and a most toilsome and ill-requited labour 

 is that which they have to perform, for the country 

 around Angolahlah and Debra Berhan is so bare 

 of wood that the inhabitants have no other resource 

 for fuel but the dung of cattle mixed with mire, 

 which are formed into large flat cakes and heaped 

 up in storehouses for protection from the weather. 

 I believe that the quantity of potass in the soil in 

 this part of the country, contributes considerably to 

 the value of this strange kind of fuel, as its com- 

 bination with sundry other elements contained in 

 the dung saturates the mass with saltpetre. 



The Negoos, however, does not employ this kind 

 of fuel in his palaces, but is supplied by the wood- 

 cutting slaves with the cedar-smelling pine-tree, 

 called " ted," or the more adapted for a bright warm 

 lire, the oil-containing wood of the wild olive-tree ; 

 both of which grow abundantly in the forests of 

 Kundee and Afrabinah, that occupy the head of 

 some of the numerous valleys sloping towards the 

 Hawash, on the east of the ridge in front of Ankobar. 

 From these forests, the stalwart frames of the 

 Shankalli slaves bear long and heavy burdens 

 of the rended fire-wood up the steep rugged 

 ascent, to the right of the Hill of Grace ; and then, 

 for twenty-five miles, to the palaces of Debra 

 Berhan and Angolahlah. Upon this painful and 

 laborious duty, not less than three hundred 



