S( WAV. AND DEAR. 243 



teresting and industrious insects, but place in juxta- 

 position to the hive, supposed to be nearly full of 

 honey, an empty one, and in a very short time, the 

 whole of the inhabitants of the older hive, have 

 commenced constructing fresh combs in the new 

 one placed for their convenience. 



For one ahmulah a winechar, or drinking-hornful, 

 holding about a pint of honey, is obtained; and double 

 that quantity of butter brings the same price, so that 

 I consider both articles very dear. Immediately after 

 the rains, however, three or four times this quantity 

 of butter may be obtained for an ahmulah. Besides 

 cotton and tobacco, " gaisho" or the dried leaves of 

 a shrub belonging to the same species of plant as 

 the tea-tree, is also sold by weight against salt ; 

 these leaves are used as a bitter in brewing the 

 native beer instead of hops. Six times in weight 

 of this article is given in exchange for one of salt, 

 but if weighed against cotton, four times the quan- 

 tity of gaisho is given. 



' Tobacco in small round cakes, two inches in 

 diameter, and half an inch thick is also weighed 

 in exchange for salt, two of tobacco being considered 

 equal to one of salt ; it is grown in the wana-dag- 

 gan country, or where the climate is temperate, in 

 contradistinction to daggan, or highlands, and 

 holla, or lowlands. Tobacco is the article in 

 which the people of the wana-daggan chiefly 

 speculate, taking it down to the kolla country in 

 exchange for cotton, seven times its weight being 

 r 2 



