402 
EASTERN ETHIOPIA 
XXXI 
There is something very characteristic in the “ click ” 
when two balls cannon: some players lielieve it to be 
inimitable. Some years ago, two men in New York were 
at billiards and the player claimed a cannon: his 
opponent disputed it. A friend in the room supported 
the player’s claim, he “ heard the click.” Later on, 
when playing had been discontinued they heard the 
“ click of contact,” but it was produced by a mocking¬ 
bird in the saloon. 
All billiard balls look alike to an untrained eye : they 
seem alike to inexperienced players, but not to experts. 
An untrue ball will run comparatively straight under a 
smart stroke from the cue. A stealthy stroke from an 
expert player reveals flaws in the contour of the ball, 
or of the cloth. Imagine then the suffering which Sir 
AVilliam Gilbert inflicts on the billiard sharp in his 
delightful comic opera. The Mikado^ when he condemns 
him to play extravagant matches : 
In fitless finger stalls 
On a cloth untrue, 
With a twisted cue 
And elliptical billiard balls. 
In mediseval times the amount of ivory exported 
from Africa excited the astonishment of travellers. 
To-day the best and largest tusks come from 
Equatorial Africa and the number exported excites the 
curiosity of tourists. The number of tusks which 
passed through the Sudan Customs Office during 1905 
was 4,954, representing a value of about £42,000 
[Goveriiment Reports). The industrial world requires 
and obtains 600 to 800 tons of elephant ivory annually. 
Ivory Sales are held in London four times yearly. At 
the quarterly Ivory Sale, July, 1910, the tusks offered 
for sale weighed 66|- tons : they were imported from 
East Africa, West Africa, Abyssinia, the Sudan, and 
Siam. In addition to elephants’ tusks there were tusks 
from the following animals :—walrus, narwhal, hippo¬ 
potamus, wart-hogs, and boars : also a quarter of a ton 
of rhinoceros horns. 
