130 CONSULTATION UPON MY 



highly prized even along the sacred or eastern 

 coast of the Red Sea, and in Jeddah will command 

 an increased value of two hundred per cent, upon 

 their original cost. 



Sheik Tigh concurred immediately in my pro- 

 posed plan, either of endeavouring to remain in 

 Shoa "by a personal request to he made to the 

 Negoos ; or of going away to Giddem, and from 

 there to the court of Beroo Lobo, the Mahomedan 

 chief of that portion of the Argobbah, or valley 

 country that extends to the north of Efat, as far as 

 the river Tahlahlac, one of the most northern tri- 

 butaries of the Hawash. The state of my finances, 

 however, I found would not admit of this latter 

 alternative ; for, excepting the thirteen dollars 

 remaining of the Hy Soumaulee money, I had only 

 seven dollars in the world. 



It was at length determined amongst us, for 

 Hadjji Abdullah had^joinecl in our consultation, that 

 I should take another present to Tinta, as a kind of 

 bribe, and the real object of which Sheik Tigh was 

 to explain to him. I accordingly packed up a 

 damask table-cloth, and provided myself with three 

 of the most favoured dollars I was possessed of, and 

 thus armed, went again in the dusk of the evening 

 to the house of the Governor. My offering was very 

 quietly received and concealed, by which I per- 

 ceived the business had been properly managed by 

 Sheik Tigh, and that it was understood I was to 

 have unmolested, three hours' start of him the next 



