1844.] Agricultural and Land produce of Shoa. 279 



the delicate operations which long experience has proved in all coun- 

 tries to be imperative, the result of the crop is one which might be 

 expected. 



75. The grub, called tempash, is very destructive to the crops, eating 

 up the roots of the young plants before they have acquired strength 

 and consistency. Baboons exist in numerous colonies, and inflict in- 

 finite damage on the surrounding fields; troops of two and three 

 hundred descend upon the grain during the night, and leave but 

 a small remnant for the proprietor. Locusts temporarily wing their 

 flight to these elevated regions, and devour every green herb; and 

 a mildew called (i uramasioo^ blights the hopes of the husbandman, 

 when there happens to be a scarcity of rain. The Galla fly also, 

 which is as large as a bee, abounds; — a great pest to the cattle, sting- 

 ing them to the effusion of much blood, and causing great pain and 

 bleeding from the puncture ; but considering the very indifferent instru- 

 ments used in the cultivation of the ground, the small advance made 

 in assisting the soil, and the drawbacks just mentioned, the return 

 given is one which could hardly be anticipated. 



76. Indeed, the seasons of Abyssinia, as well as the system of culti- 

 vation, are truly anomalous. Two monsoons annually pour down 

 their copious floods upon the earth ; a plentiful exhalation of dew dis- 

 tils from the moist ground during the night for months after the sup- 

 ply of water has been drained from the skies, and under this vivifying 

 influence, the plants shoot up with amazing luxuriance, refreshed 

 alike by the pure coolness of the morning breeze, and strengthened by 

 the strong heat of the mid-day sun. Two harvests are yearly garnered 

 in by the provident husbandman from the fat land, without its utter 

 exhaustion and impoverishment. Whilst the ripe grain is being reaped 

 from one field, the seed is but just deposited in the next adjacent one ; 

 the cattle employed in ploughing up the fertile soil in one location, 

 whilst the muzzled oxen are trampling out its lately yielded treasures 

 in the next; and all the various processes of husbandry, from the 

 breaking up of the ground, to the winnowing of the grain, may be 

 witnessed in one small locality simultaneously. 



" Hie ver assiduura, atque alienis mensibus acstas," 

 " Bis gravidae pecudes, bis pomis utilis arbos." 



77- Although the keeping bees may not, strictly speaking, come 



2s 



