184 SOCIAL ECONOMY OF 



I entered largely upon the great commercial 

 benefits that would accrue to the Shoans by a com- 

 munication being kept up between their country 

 and the sea-coast. The very supposition of a road 

 being opened for this purpose seemed, however, to 

 astound Tinta, who, with a deal of sincerity in his 

 manner, begged of me, if I wished to remain on 

 good terms with the Negoos, not to mention such a 

 thing ; for " how would Sahale Selassee," he asked, 

 " be able to preserve his people, if they could escape 

 to countries so rich as yours." To remove the 

 Adal and Galla tribes, Tinta considered would be 

 to break down the "hatta," or fence, that alone 

 secured the Shoans at home, for they dare not leave 

 their country under present circumstances, except 

 with the greatest danger to their lives. 



This subject-preserving principle appears to be 

 the most important one in the home policy of the 

 government of Sahale Selassee. It also appears to 

 have been the foundation of many ancient systems 

 of social communities, and the representatives of 

 which, preserved in their original purity, have yet 

 to be discovered in the unknown oases that stud 

 with desert-surrounded islands intertropical Africa. 



In Shoa this principle is carried out for the sole 

 benefit of the monarch, and Paley's metaphor of 

 the lording pigeon, over the productive wealth of 

 the whole dovecote, typifies exactly the respective 

 conditions of the Shoans and their Negoos. The 

 strictly selfish and monopolizing rule^ established 



