THE EVIL REMEDIED. 211 



unusual for household furniture and utensils, 

 instead of being carried to the gimjon bait, the 

 King's store house, the only public building 

 found in the towns and villages of Shoa, to be 

 allowed to remain in the house to which they 

 have belonged, and in that case, the next holder 

 upon whom the King has conferred it, comes in for 

 these conveniences. It w r as so in my case, for 

 I found that I had not only obtained possession 

 of a house, but found it ready furnished also. 

 One little drawback from my apparent good 

 fortune was the circumstance that everything was 

 in such a dilapidated and rotten condition, that I 

 was not surprised at the governor not insisting 

 upon such rubbish being taken to that general 

 repository, the " gimjon bait." The fact is, the 

 good people of Shoa manage, as in every other 

 country, to remedy by some conventional subter- 

 fuge any political or social injustice; and here, 

 where the descent of property is diverted from its 

 natural course by an arbitrary custom, the evil is 

 counteracted by the exchange, during illness, of 

 everything valuable in furniture or household 

 utensils with near relations, for the most worthless 

 description of the same articles, so that in case of 

 death the Xegoos gets a very sorry collection as 

 the heir-at-law to the deceased. 



Xo sooner did Tinta proceed to the house to put 

 Walderheros in possession, than the two women, 

 sisters of the late possessor, came forward, and 

 p2 



