DIXAN 
^31 
always seen at table on fast days, at which time are also introduced 
green wheat and parched Indian corn and beans. 
*' Of barley (called Ambasha) there are two kinds, one of which 
is of a black colour. There is a great quantity cultivated, but it is 
less prized than any other grain, and fetches not more than half 
the price. This partly proceeds, I imagine, from the difficulty of 
cleaning and preparing it ; for when properly purified and mixed 
with wheat, it makes one of the best kinds of bread used in the 
country, and is made in the form of cakes about a foot in diameter, 
and three quarters of an inch thick : it is however dry and harsh, 
and is the only corn given to horses and mules. Indian corn or 
maize is much cultivated between Gel la and Dixan, but I never 
saw it made into bread. 
" It is scarcely possible to ascertain the actual price of any kind 
of corn, from the circumstance of its being only exchanged as an 
article of barter, and not having any fixed price as in other coun- 
tries ; besides, almost every man cultivatesjust enough for the con- 
sumption of his own family, and therefore seldom goes to market 
either to buy or sell it. 
" A gerbutteh of grain is said to make from eleven to fifteen of 
the large cakes, or engara ; two of which are considered as suffici- 
ent for the provision of one man per day ; this, reckoning six ger- 
buttehs to the dollar, will make the keep of a servant amount to 
somewhat about two-pence per diem; but I consider this to be 
about double the actual cost, as the servants are rarely more than 
half fed, not to mention many other circumstances all turning in 
the master's favour. 
*' Their implements of husbandry are extremely rude, the plough 
