tapeworms, and the medicinal properties of many other plants. Nevertheless, our friend De Martino is greatly valued amongst them for his medical skill. Most wounds are brought to him to be sewn up; most fevers are treated by him; but his chief hold over the people arises from the fact that with his own retort he can make his own spirits and liqueursand this is the way to the heart of an Abyssinian chief. A dozen of some choice liqueur sent opportunely to Ras Mangashah will settle a point of diplomacy which looked sufficiently grave. Hence the Capitano-medico at Adoua is distinctly a man of weight and importance.

I don't think I ever saw a prettier spot than Adoua, with its rocky mountains encircling it, with peaks as fantastic as any in the world-one crowned by an old prison, another by a convent. Its streams make the land around it fertile, and a few years back it was as flourishing as any place in Abyssinia. Now it is a series of ruined walls and deserted huts, a third only of the houses being inhabited, for pestilence, famine, and war have, during late years, visited Adoua and left it merely a wreck of what it once was.

On the morning after our arrival the Italian resident took me to pay a visit to the Dejetch, or governor of Adoua. The Abyssinian body politic is thus composed: Firstly, the Emperor, King of kings; secondly, the Ras, generally, but not always, crowned as vice-king of a province; thirdly, the Dejetch, or governor of a big town; and, fourthly, the Shoum, or headman of a village.

The Dejetch Ambeh of Adoua is a very important person, being a cousin of the reigning family. He received us with considerable dignity in a large round hut with grass spread over the floor and two or three Oriental carpets; all round the hut were horns inserted in the walls, on to which the great men in attendance on the Dejetch. had hung their shields and other arms. The governor sat on an angareb, whilst the Italian resident and I were provided with chairs on either side of him. After various complimentary speeches we gradually passed into politics, and I was much struck with the curious metaphorical way in which these were discussed. Ras Alula was spoken of as the devil who came up like smoke from hell, and the Dejetch remarked that it would be necessary to put up a cross on either door to keep him out. Then they spoke of a recent victory over some of Ras Alula's men, and how they had fled, as before a swarm of bees. The allusions were all rather poetical and striking. Before leaving, it was insinuated to the Dejetch that we had a present for him, which we hoped to have the honour of presenting very shortly.

He sent us a lamb and thirty pieces of bread that very day as an earnest of his goodwill, and on the following afternoon, accompanied by my wife, I went to pay him another visit, my interpreter carrying the gifts mysteriously under the folds of his shamma. It was not exactly the hour we should have chosen to pay a visit to a royal prince, had we

thought about it, for it was just the hour at which he and his great men were breaking their fast. In Lent no one is supposed to eat more than once a day, and that meal is in the afternoon. The Dejetch and at least fifty of the principal men of Adoua were

HORN FOR RED PEPPER; WRIST BASKET FOR RED PEPPER;
DISH COVER OF STRAW; STRAW BASKET

all seated in a tent, which was crowded to excess and stiflingly hot. They had before them baskets of bread, and the usual platters of a sauce of oil and red pepper, into which they dip the bread. I must say the Abyssinians are very clean eaters; they break off a piece of the bread without touching the rest

with their fingers, and every movement is graceful, even down to the lowest of the people—undoubtedly the heritage of a high civilisation in bygone days. It is just the same when they eat their raw meat; they are graceful, and each man only touches the piece he intends to eat with his own fingers as he cuts it off with his sword. When the governor ate, every one rushed up to have the honour of hiding him with his shamma from public gaze, and of wiping his hands with their robes when he had his hands washed after eating. It was a silent, and to us a very interesting, meal. Poor things! they must have been very hungry, and yet they all kept their tempers admirably. When, however, the tedge horns had been passed round, their tongues became loosened, and conversation flowed freely.

When the process of eating was over, and the meanest amongst them had swallowed his last mouthful, the Dejetch evidently began to get curious to see what presents we had brought him. He made a sign to the agarafi, the master of the ceremonies, who stood at the tent door, stick in hand, to order the guests to depart, which they all did without a murmur. The order to depart and return again. presently' is very strictly observed in an Abyssinian household; even the emperor's son obeys it; for an Abyssinian, whoever he may be, is considered as lord in his own house. The Dejetch displayed no emotion at the things we gave him until we handed him a watch, and then he could not restrain his inordinate delight. We showed him how to wind it up,

open it, &c., and though he transferred all the other objects to his servant to be taken away, he never let the watch out of his hand.

Presents were quite the order of the day at Adoua, and we were given several nice things by the Italian resident, including a beautiful mergef, or prince's robe, which is distinguished from the ordinary shamma by having the red stripe beautifully woven in various patterns. At Adoua we also acquired some very good pieces of Abyssinian basket work. Their great baskets for holding the cakes of bread are intricately woven with different coloured grasses and are exceedingly pretty. They also make their dish-covers in the same way, and their red pepper pots, with a hole in the middle, so that the servants may wear them on their wrists as they carry their dishes to the table. This intricate basket weaving has its parallel in Nubia and Lower Egypt.

We visited a great many houses in Adoua, making interesting little purchases at most of them, including an embroidered lady's costume (Vide illustration, p. 23), with a very pretty pattern worked in three coloured silks. There are some good houses in Adoua, though most of them are now falling into ruins. Some of them are square, with upper stories and towers; and I think the influence of the Portuguese, who constructed the neighbouring fortress of Fremona, must also have been felt in house architecture in the town. Ras Alula possesses a particularly fine set of huts in Adoua in a large space inclosed by a wall, and his principal dwelling hut