426 ADOWA. 
collected in the interior finds also its way through Adowa ; bat 
this commerce is carried on by the traders with so much secrecy, 
that it is impossible to, form any accurate estimate of the quan- 
tity. The number of slaves exported, may be computed annu- 
ally at about a thousand, part of which are sent to Massowa, 
and the rest to the small ports northward of that place, whence 
they are privately shipped off by the natives, for the purpose of 
avoiding the duties levied by the Nayib. The provinces to the 
south of Adowa chiefly abound in cattle and corn, which, toge- 
ther with the salt procured on the borders, constitute their chief 
articles of barter. There is a manufactory of small carpets car- 
ried on in the province of Samen^ some of which were shewn to 
me at Adowa, and they really were much superior to what might 
have been expected, as the production of Abyssinian workman- 
ship. At Axum, and in its neighbourhood, the inhabitants are 
celebrated for the manner in which they prepare skins for mak- 
ing parchment, and they likewise particularly excel in finishing 
this article for use. The working of iron and brass is general 
throughout the country ; but the more highly finished chains, 
wrought from the last material, are brought into the country 
from the south, and are said to be manufactured among the 
Galla. . ' 
All workers in iron are called Buda by the Abyssinians, and a 
very strange superstition is attached to this employment, every 
man engaged in the occupation being supposed to possess a 
power of transforming himself at night into an hyaena, during 
which he is thought to be capable of preying even upon human 
flesh ; and it is further believed, that if during the period of hig 
