ARTICLES OF FURNITURE. 91 



drinking cups, contained water, whilst others, 

 superannuated by sundry cracks, were partly filled 

 with teff, or wheat. The former is the minute 

 seed of a kind of grass, of which is made the 

 bread of the temperate countries of Abyssinia, as 

 it flourishes best in situations between the wheat and 

 barley fields cultivated upon the high table land of 

 Shoa, and the jowarrce plantations in the very low 

 countries on a level with the Hawash. 



The only piece of furniture, strictly speaking, in 

 the house, except my bed, was a chair of the most 

 primitive construction, its thong- woven bottom 

 being scarcely six inches from the ground. It 

 w T ould have been altogether a good model for some 

 rustic seat builder about to fit up the interior of a 

 garden alcove. My two boxes assisted, however, in 

 producing a showy effect, one of them being a 

 Chinese trunk, covered with bright red leather, the 

 other a shiny tin medicine chest, and to make them 

 useful as well as ornamental, they were generally 

 converted into seats on the occasion of any visitors 

 of rank calling upon me. 



Besides these things, old red gowns of my land- 

 lady, and some tattered grass-made baskets and 

 sieves used in dressing and cleaning grain, were 

 suspended from the projecting ends of the stick 

 wall, and made the interior of the house look 

 rather untidy. 



Walclerheros was one of the few Abyssinians I 

 have met who appeared to delight in cleanliness, 



