AND OF GRAIN. 



241 



cheaper than wheat, but the price is not so mucli 

 less as I should have expected. Marshilla, or 

 dourali, is half as cheap again as wheat. It is used 

 principally a,s"nujffrau" being boiled in water, and 

 with a little salt sprinkled upon it, eaten in that 

 state. This dish forms the principal food of the 

 slaves belonging to the slave-merchants on their 

 journey to the coast, but in Shoa the slaves in 

 Christian households, as I have before observed, 

 usually live in the same manner as their owners, 

 and are invariably considered as part of his family. 



Peas, kidney-beans, and the common horse-beans 

 are also used in the same manner, and are generally 

 sold so low as two Islam cuna, or nearly two pecks, 

 for an ahmulah. Onions and the green leaves of a 

 species of kail are hawked about the town, broken 

 salt being exchanged, according to the quantity that 

 can be decided upon as the fair value, after a deal of 

 higgling between the two parties. 



Tut, or cotton, and tobacco are sold for salt only, 

 according to weight, a rude kind of balance called 

 mezan being employed for this purpose. This is a kind 

 of steelyard, made of hide and wood ; a piece of thick 

 cowskin is dried in the sun upon a round stone, till 

 it assumes the form and size of a small washhand- 

 basin, which is suspended by four thongs of skin to 

 the thin end of a stick, about fourteen inches long, 

 heavy and thick at the further extremity. Notches 

 are cut with a knife, not in any regular manner, for 

 about two inches from the scale end, on the under side. 



VOL. II. R 



