400 DESCRIPTION OF GUNS. 



forty more had been brought up by M. Rochet 

 d'Hericourt. With the Kafilah I accompanied 

 there were more than fifty pistols, all of which 

 were given by the Ambassador to the Negoos. 

 These small weapons were quite unsuited to 

 Amhara soldiers, who like long shots about as 

 well as any military, it has ever been my fortune 

 to observe in actual combat. The pistols, how- 

 ever, were not altogether useless, for, by the 

 orders of the sagacious monarch, several of the 

 best matchlocks were immediately new stocked 

 and fitted with the locks of the former, and 

 were thus rendered much more available as fire- 

 arms. 



There are no less than four descriptions of 

 guns in the armoury of the Negoos. The first and 

 most ancient being termed balla qaob, are immense 

 long old-fashioned affairs. Each require three or 

 four individuals to hold, whilst another runs up 

 with a lighted stick to discharge it ; when those 

 who stand behind, find it most desirable to get out of 

 the way, for the recoil throws it several yards out 

 of the hands of the gunmen. The second kind 

 is called balla matatchah, and is the common 

 matchlock ; many of these, I was assured, were 

 formerly balla qnob, but that a Gypt several years 

 before had visited Shoa, and so far benefited the 

 Negoos by reducing his long pieces into something 

 like portable guns. The next kind, and most in 

 'Hvour, were the English and French muskets, 



