LOVE OF SILVER ORNAMENTS. 335 



black rings are cut, and I have also seen a neat 

 little? bottle, about two inches long, turned in a 

 very ingenious manner, and which was intended to 

 hold " col " (the black oxide of antimony), with 

 which the Mahomedans adorn their eyelids, and the 

 Christians employ as a medicine, applying it in the 

 same manner. Besides horn earrings, the Abys- 

 sinian women wear large silver ones, sometimes 

 weighing as much as two or three dollars each. 

 One fashion alone is general in Shoa, a back and 

 front portion, each of which invariably consists of 

 three large beads, surmounted by a fourth. These 

 are fixed in the ear in a similar manner as the horn 

 ones, and look not unlike small bunches of grapes 

 projecting before and behind. 



Whilst I am upon this subject, I may observe 

 that the Shoan women are excedingly fond of 

 silver ornaments, and all their riches consist of such 

 stores. Dollars are only valued as the means of 

 thus enabling the possessors to adorn themselves or 

 their women, for all the coin of this sort which 

 enters Shoa ultimately finds its way into the 

 crucible, except such as falls into the hands of the 

 King, and which are destined for a less useful end, 

 these being securely packed in jars, and deposited 

 in caves. One hill, called Kundi, a few T miles to 

 the north of Ankobar, is pierced by numerous sub- 

 terranean passages, in w r hich are hidden in this 

 manner immense treasures in gold and silver. 

 They are kept closed by heavy doors of iron, and 



