232 OF THE AHMDLAH, 



strangers, to whom the white man was a curiosity, 

 would inquisitively ask from the townspeople all 

 particulars of my nation, and my business in Shoa. 

 No impertinent interruption, or shouting in de- 

 rision, made my visits to this busy scene unplea- 

 sant ; a short whisper, that I was a balla durgo, 

 and a friend of the Negoos, was sufficient to 

 restrain the most curious from pressing around, 

 even when, on pretence of directing me in choosing 

 the ahmulahs, which was an opportunity that the 

 more careful frequently sought, to introduce them- 

 selves to my notice, and which was generally, in 

 such cases, the preliminary to some request for 

 medicine. 



The object Walderheros and I had now in view 

 was to change the dollar, and for this purpose we 

 sought out that portion of the plain, where in 

 several orderly lines, numerous salt brokers sat 

 behind heaps of "ahmulahoitsh," the remarkable 

 currency of Shoa, in common with all parts of 

 Abyssinia. 



These ahmulahs, as they may be called, are thin 

 bricks of salt, which have been not inaptly com- 

 pared in size and shape to a mower's whet-stone ; 

 they vary some little in size, but few of them are 

 less than eight inches long. Their form is rather 

 interesting, from the fact of their being cut some- 

 what in the ancient form of money pieces, thinner 

 at the two extremities than in the middle, and if 

 of metal might not have been inaptly termed a 



