PRODUCE BROUGHT TO MARKET. 239 



rally fixed at a certain number of these salt-pieces. 

 For two ahmulahs a very fine young sheep or 

 goat may be bought, and the very best of the kind 

 will not sell for more than five. A good-sized goat, 

 however, commands a much higher price, ten or 

 twelve ahmulahs being sometimes asked. An ox 

 for ploughing brings about seventy ahmulahs, or, if 

 small and intended for killing, may be bought as 

 low as thirty. Horses and mules vary in price 

 from seven to twelve dollars. The latter are pre- 

 ferred by the Abyssinians. I have been offered a 

 very excellent horse for two dollars, and have seen 

 one blind, but in good condition, sold for twelve 

 ahmulahs, or about tw r o shillings and sixpence. 



The next principal thing in the market is the 

 cotton cloths, which are woven of one general 

 width, about three quarters of a yard, and from ten 

 to fifteen yards long. Of the common kind are 

 made the " sennafil," or wide short trowsers of the 

 men, and the " shumah," or waist-cloth, of the 

 women. The body-cloth, or tobe, is common to both 

 sexes, but those of the men being much larger than 

 those of the women, are generally double folds of 

 the cloth, or four cubits in breadth, and at least seven 

 cubits long. Sometimes they are of an extravagant 

 size. A narrow border of the blue and red woollen 

 stuff, called shumlah, woven into the cloth, is the 

 only ornament, and these coloured stripes will be 

 sometimes repeated at the distance of a foot from 

 each other through the whole length of the cloth 



