276 Agricultural and Land produce of Shoa. [No. 148. 



" zungada" and the "kolye'' are employed solely in the manufac- 

 ture of beer. The expected produce during a good season, is calcu- 

 lated at eight hundred times the quantity of seed committed to the 

 ground, and a bad season produces half of the above enormous return ; 

 but the plant will not grow on the elevated plateaus, and is entirely 

 confined to the vallies below. 



69. Beans are eaten raw in the green state, or stored up for use 

 during fast time. They are very inferior in size to the European ve- 

 getable, and are invariably of a dusky white color. The plants 

 themselves grow erect to about the height of two feet ; the flowers of 

 a white color have dark spots in the centre, and the pods grow up- 

 wards in bunches. Peas are used in the same manner as beans. 

 They are sown broad-cast on the field, and are suffered to creep tan- 

 gled over the surface, without any artificial support whatever. 



70. Tobacco thrives well and luxuriantly over all the country, and 

 is cultivated among the enclosures and gardens to a considerable extent, 

 notwithstanding the anathemas of the priests, who having falsely inter- 

 preted the words of Jesus Christ, " That which comethout of the mouth 

 of a man defileth him," have interdicted the use of this narcotic, under 

 the penalty of exclusion from the churches. There is a considerable 

 demand, however, among the Moslem part of the population, who are 

 freely addicted to its use, and many of the Christians are even willing 

 to pay the penalty of inhaling the seductive leaf. The seed in Abys- 

 sinia is planted during the month of July, and the leaves are ripe 

 for plucking in December. Whilst yet in the green„and moist state, 

 they are pounded in a wooden mortar to a perfect paste, and af- 

 terwards worked up into small thin squares, like indigo cakes, which 

 are well dried in the sun, amongst a sprinkling of wood ashes ; but the 

 tobacco grown at Hurrur, and among the mountains of the Ilto Galla, 

 is cured in the leaf with saltpetre, is of a bright yellow colour, 

 of a remarkably good flavor, resembling the finer sorts raised in 

 Arabia and Persia, and is a great article of import into Shoa. Cara- 

 vans continually arriving at Alio Amba, laden with this produce 

 from Humur and Churchur, 



71. The leaves of the " gromum" a gigantic species of very coarse 

 low cabbage, which grows to the height of eight or ten feet, as well 

 as onions, chillies, and a kind of tasteless gourd, are used as articles 



