OR SALT MONEY. 233 



spit. The breadth across the centre of the 

 ahmulah is a little over two inches, whilst at the 

 extremities it scarcely measures one inch. The 

 height or thickness is uniform, being usually about 

 one inch and a quarter. As may naturally be 

 supposed, this money, consisting of a material so 

 soft and deliquescent as common salt, becomes 

 denuded by use, and that a great difference con- 

 sequently exists between the weight of a new 

 specimen, and one that has been in exchange for 

 only a few months. During the rainy season, 

 especially, in Abyssinia the waste of the ahmulahs 

 is very great, although the inhabitants, by burying 

 them in the wood ashes of their large hearths, or 

 suspending them in the smoke from the roof, en- 

 deavour to preserve them, at that time, from the 

 action of the moisture in the atmosphere. 



It not unfrequently happens, also, that careless- 

 ness exposes them sometimes to the chances of a 

 quick reduction in size, by leaving the ahmulahs in 

 situations where mules or cattle can get to them ; 

 and as all domestic animals are inmates of the same 

 apartment with the family during the night, these 

 opportunities of robbing their master by licking the 

 salt-pieces, is frequently a temptation too great for 

 their virtue. It is amusing, also, sometimes to witness 

 in the market-place the contests between children 

 who have been entrusted with an ahmulah, and the 

 flocks of goat and sheep with which they are imme- 

 diately beset. These circumstances are mentioned 



