250 THE GIMJON BAIT. 



It overlooked and was overlooked by a number of 

 other houses similarly constructed, each built upon 

 its own garden platform, one above the other, like 

 a series of high steps, from half way down the steep 

 hill-side, to the summit of a bluff, cone-like eminence, 

 in which the northern extremity, of the otherwise 

 flat-topped hill of Aliu Amba terminated. On this 

 exalted point, the long thatched roof of the largest 

 house of the town was visible over a strong pali- 

 sading of splintered ted, and over which two tall 

 mimosas towered like giant sentinels. To go near 

 here was considered a crime, and to break through 

 the enclosure would have been a sacrilege. This of 

 course was royal property, the " gimjon bait," 

 where was preserved until the annual account 

 was made by the Governor to the King, all the 

 fines, lapses by death, and duties, that had accu- 

 mulated during that time. Beneath this public 

 storehouse was a long terrace, divided into several 

 enclosures, in each of which stood a snug cottage ; 

 and these again looking upon one below, the top of 

 which scarcely reached the level of the ground, 

 the upper ones were built upon. Here dwelt a most 

 respectable man, an Islam slave-merchant, who kept 

 a gratuitous school for boys, whom he instructed in 

 Arabic, that is to say, in reading and writing 

 passages of the Koran. Far beneath the level of 

 this my own house stood, and before it, and on 

 either hand, were several others whose gardens 

 all surrounded mine. The hill at this point, too, 



