OF ALIU AMBA. 229 



ing road, but broader, and having more of the 

 character of a public way, than the little lane 

 from my house. Here Ave met market people 

 hawking their wares, with loud cries ; or loud- 

 talking disputants, carrying on a strong argument, 

 as they battered away, with heavy but harmless 

 blows of their long sticks, upon the goat skin sacks 

 of grain or cotton, with which numerous donkeys 

 before them were laden, and which were being 

 conveyed to the market-place. 



The low hum of distant voices gradually in- 

 creased into a murmur, and then into a hubbub, as 

 we entered the market-place, which was a large 

 plain, occupying the southern half of the table 

 rock, bare and stony, except in the centre, where 

 a high circular hedge of a thin pipe-formed 

 euphorbia fenced in the Mahomedan burial place 

 of the town. Its limits, besides, were well defined 

 by a low stone wall, carried all around, and upon 

 that portion of it facing the entrance of our road 

 into the market place, sat Tinta, wrapt up in the 

 customary manner in his tobe, save his head and 

 one arm, with which he gave directions respecting 

 the receiving of toll, or deciding such cases of 

 dispute as might arise in the course of the 

 market. As soon as he saw me with Walderheros, 

 he called me to him, and as I approached, he shifted 

 his position so that I might sit upon the sun dried 

 ox skin by his side. A favoured visitor, honoured 

 thus by a seat upon the bench. 



