OR IN ABYSSINIA. 245 



dealers, the two or three pilgrims Shoa could boast 

 of who had visited Mecca, and who always advanced, 

 as one evidence of the extensive journeys they had 

 made, that they had seen a Jew. The Falasha of 



northern Abyssinia, speaking the Agow language, 

 cannot be pretended to be of Hebrew descent, and 

 the more we hear of this interesting people the 

 more assured we shall be, that although practising 

 somewhat similar customs, no connexion, more 

 recent than prior to the era of the Exodus, can be 

 traced between them and the Jews. 



Having noticed everything that can interest the 

 reader in an account of an Abyssinian market, I 

 shall now return home. Walderheros slings over 

 his shoulder a broad chain of ahmulahs, connected 

 together by the pliant lit bark ; ten of the salt- 

 pieces reposing upon his chest, and the other half- 

 dollar's worth in a corresponding manner hang 

 upon his back. Having arranged his burden, the 

 change for one dollar, we proceed together, saluting 

 Tinta as we pass him, sitting in judgment upon a 

 case of dispute that has just arisen; with shoulders 

 bare, the noisy declaimant addressing him, gesticu- 

 lates with much energy ; the etiquette of respectful 

 undress, (unrobed to the waist,) admitting of the 

 freest exercise of the upper limbs, and a corre- 

 sponding display of the most approved oratorical 

 action is the consequence. 



The evening of the market-day in Aliu Amba, 

 doses with similar scenes of jollity to those which 



