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



101. There are few edible sorts to be found wild among the fields; 

 and as in other countries possessing a moist and cold climate, the scanty 

 forests produce no abundance of spontaneous fruits. A variety of grasses, 

 however, and many of a superior quality, vegetate on the meadow 

 land. The root of the ensete is held in high esteem among the neigh- 

 bouring countries, and more especially in Garague, being scraped and 

 preserved in large quantities in excavations under ground ; the bread 

 made from this substance is said to be very sweet and nourishing* 

 The bramble berry, the corinda, and a species of the pear flourish on 

 the eastern face of the mountains ; but the remaining varieties of wild 

 fruit may be considered, in their present state, more properly the food 

 of the monkey and other denizens of the wilderness, being insipid and 

 unfit for the sustenance of man. Clover and trefoil, balm and mint, 

 luxuriate wild in all the meadows. 



102. The houses are larger than savages in general take the trouble 

 to build, but the low and damp condition of the floor, appears re- 

 markable in a country so liable to cold and rheumatism as the upper 

 parts of Shoa. Instead of their being raised above the level of the sur- 

 rounding surface, the rocks are invariably scooped away, and the descent 

 of a foot from the outside, leads into the interior of the hovel. The 

 house of the husbandman is composed of wattle and dab, and covered 

 by a grass thatch. It is always fashioned in a circular form, having 

 a closed verandah of from four to eight feet all round ; there are four 

 apertures into this from the inside ; two which lead out of the house, 

 and two into the dark alcoves which are used as dormitories by the 

 heads of the family. The slaves and inferiors repose in a heap on the 

 floor of the inside apartment, where the fire and the few requisite 

 utensils for kitchen and farm purposes, together with the mule and 

 the hens and chickens, form a very lively group. There is no chim- 

 ney, and the household furniture must be described negatively ; no bed, 

 no table, no chair ; these the Abyssinian does not reckon among the 

 necessaries of life, as he can make the earth serve him for all three; 



*Sed non sine admiratione dicenda est arbor Ensete, Indicae ficui similis duarum 

 oryziarum crassitie. Nam truncata enumeris tot vicibus sponte renascitur : quae omnes 

 inessunt ut arbor hie alium fructum proferre opus non habeat: tota enira prodere 

 est. Nam consisa abcocta viliorum hominum famem sedat, qui ut folia conclusa cum 

 farina depsunt, ac pullis inserere dant .—Sobi Ludolfe Hist Aetheop. 



