1 844.] Agricultural and Land produce of Shoa. 273 



resemblance. In some spots the plant is gigantic, measuring seven, 

 eight, and nine inches in circumference ; and the advantages of a very 

 productive crop twice during the year, and the existence of the plant 

 during five seasons, together with the heavy crop of particularly fine 

 wool, even during the first season, give this species a most deserved 

 pre-eminence. 



61. The cotton seed is placed for a time in wood ashes, and then 

 well rubbed with red earth before planting, and when the locality is 

 favorable for irrigation, water is invariably given to the plant. There 

 are two kinds, the Gondar species which grows in a spreading dwarfy 

 fashion, and the other that of Efat, which rises tall and straight from 

 the ground, but the seeds of both are planted together in the same 

 field, though the produce is separated in gathering in the crop. The 

 Gondar species is reckoned the superior of the two, the wool being 

 finer and the cloth produced softer and more elastic; but the plant en- 

 joys a shorter existence, as the Efat species remains productive in the 

 ground for four and five years, whilst that of Gondar is exhausted 

 after the third ; it is also customary to cut the Efat plant over on 

 the fifth year, close to the ground, which is ploughed up and sown 

 with wheat or other grain, and on the removal of the crop, the young 

 cotton shoots have appeared well above the ground, and produce for two 

 further seasons. 



62. The pod when ripe is cut with a knife, the husk immediately 

 taken off, and the wool forthwith deposited in a bag. No dirt is any 

 where discernible, as the pod is cut directly from the tree and great 

 care taken in conveying the cotton wool into the sack. One full bear- 

 ing bush produces between four and five pounds of raw stuff, twice 

 during the twelve months. The processes of cleaning, teasing, bowing 

 and twisting are entirely performed by the women, who extract the 

 seeds in a house by means of a smooth stone and an iron spindle, which 

 is merely rolled over small portions at a time, the strength of the 

 female arm being sufficient to expel the seeds, without bruising them, 

 or in any way injuring the fibre. A common bow is then used in the 

 process of teasing this wool, and as spinning wheels are unknown in this 

 country, the thread is twisted by means of the ancient spindle, which 

 is the same now in use among the Indian hammauls and brinjarris; 

 the spinning motion being given by a rapid pressure between the left 



