254 RETURN OF TINTA. 



thing larger than the baking-dish itself, made of a 

 band of grass folded around one end as a centre, 

 and stiched into that situation. Upon this was pulled, 

 by a quick jerk, the warm cellular-surfaced bread, 

 and then getting up, my new handmaiden presented 

 it to me as it lay on the mat, with a look that said 

 "Taste it yourself, and see if I cannot bake bread." 



In this manner she soon turned over six or eight 

 of these pan-cakes, and a fowl having been boiled 

 to-day for the sake of the broth, of which alone I 

 could partake, no other food was cooked for my three 

 servants, they so far observing the fast, and soon after 

 their meal they retired to rest ; Walderheros and his 

 wife occupying an ox-skin upon the floor, Goodaloo 

 making his bed in the porch, which was formed by 

 the passage into the house leading through the outer 

 and inner wall, being closed in on either side by a 

 mud-plastered partition. 



August 4:th. — I was glad to find Tinta come back 

 this morning, he having returned with a message, 

 that if I knew how to make gunpowder, the Negoos 

 wished me to manufacture some for him. On 

 inquiring, I found that my balderabah still con- 

 tinued in the good graces of the Negoos, who, in- 

 stead of the town of Aliu Amba, which convenience 

 had required should be given to Abdoanarch, 

 had put Tinta into possession of a much more valu- 

 able one called Ramsey, in sight from my garden. 

 He was instructed, however, to live as usual in 

 Aliu Amba, to communicate between the Negoos 



