HOUSE OF MUSCULO. 167 



recesses was placed a bed-stead, covered with an ox 

 skin tanned with the bark of the kantuffa, which 

 gives to this kind of leather a red colour. A skin 

 so prepared is called " net." The kantuffa is a 

 pleasing looking tree, and might be cultivated as a 

 lawn shrub in England. It is a species of acacia, 

 and the bright red seed vessels formed like those of 

 the English ash, remaining after the foliage dis- 

 appears, would diminish considerably, I think, the 

 dreary aspect of a shrubbery in that season. 



In the other two recesses were numerous jars 

 containing ale, grain, and water, and side by side 

 stood four pedestal hand mills, in the rear of which 

 a hole, knocked through the mud and stick wall, 

 served the double purpose of a window and 

 chimney. The large circular hearth occupied 

 the usual situation, nearly in the centre of the 

 apartment, which was itself not more than twelve 

 feet in diameter. Two solid planks of the " sigbar' 

 tree, each of which had been cut with no little 

 labour from a single tree, formed a pair of folding- 

 doors. The hinges on which they revolved con- 

 sisted of strong projecting extremities on one side 

 of the top and bottom of each, which were received 

 into corresponding holes on the wooden lintel and 

 threshold. At night the two flaps were secured by 

 an iron hasp shutting upon a staple, that admitted 

 a kind of wooden linch-pin to be thrust through. 



The sigbar tree, of which these doors were 

 made, is the principal forest-tree of Shoa, it some- 



