Market day in Aliu Amba.--Toll of wares.--Court of Piepoudre.--
Appearance of the market.--The salt money.--Character of the
different vendors.--The prices of several articles.--No Jews
in Abyssinia.
_July 29._--The next Friday, feeling somewhat stronger, I determined
to accompany Walderheros to the market-place. As in England, the days
of such weekly meetings, for the convenience of sale or barter, vary
in the towns of Shoa. In Aliu Amba the Mahomedan Sabbath is found most
convenient, whilst Ankobar market is held on Saturdays, and in other
places Mondays or Tuesdays are the appointed days. Nothing, I think,
characterizes a peaceful people, or a healthy social condition, more
than these weekly meetings for the mutual convenience of buyers and
sellers. The security of property is so apparent, honest industry
and prudent economy so evident, that even in the most unfavourable
positions for the increase of knowledge, and the advance of
civilization, wherever these evidences of a people’s foresight and good
disposition exist, I never despair, but that when other more favourable
opportunities are vouchsafed, the soil will not be found unfruitful of
the good seed that may be scattered upon it. This struck me the more
forcibly, from my previous sojourn in Adal; for with what different
feelings did I witness the busy restlessness, and the not inharmonious
murmur, of the multitude of smiling contented beings that were gathered
in the market-place to-day, from those I have experienced, when
startled by the sudden cry, the confused rush to arms, and the silent
squatting of my Dankalli associates, either in the sullen muttering
calahm circle, or else, as with loud yells of defiance, they formed the
line of immediate fight; either of which characterized the only public
assemblies I ever witnessed among them.
Putting on my Arab cloak I followed Walderheros, who had been long
engaged, previously to our starting for market, selecting the kind
of dollar most in reputation among the Shoans. We proceeded along a
narrow winding lane, between high hedges of the _kufah bait_, and senna
shrubs, that assisted in forming the enclosure belonging to each little
cottage, that stood upon the banks on either hand; playing about the
wickets of which children without number attested the peace and plenty
enjoyed by the people of Shoa. Population is the criterion of human
happiness; wherever is real enjoyment of life, the offspring of man
will always be most abundant.
A very short descent led us to an equally winding road, but broader,
and having more of the character of a public way, than the little lane
from my house. Here we met market people hawking their wares, with loud
cries; or loud-talking disputants, carrying on a strong argument, as
they battered away, with heavy but harmless blows of their long sticks,
upon the goat skin sacks of grain or cotton, with which numerous
donkeys before them were laden, and which were being conveyed to the
market-place.
The low hum of distant voices gradually increased into a murmur, and
then into a hubbub, as we entered the market-place, which was a large
plain, occupying the southern half of the table rock, bare and stony,
except in the centre, where a high circular hedge of a thin pipe-formed
euphorbia fenced in the Mahomedan burial place of the town. Its limits,
besides, were well defined by a low stone wall, carried all around,
and upon that portion of it facing the entrance of our road into the
market place, sat Tinta, wrapt up in the customary manner in his tobe,
save his head and one arm, with which he gave directions respecting the
receiving of toll, or deciding such cases of dispute as might arise in
the course of the market. As soon as he saw me with Walderheros, he
called me to him, and as I approached, he shifted his position so that
I might sit upon the sun dried ox skin by his side. A favoured visitor,
honoured thus by a seat upon the bench.
I observed that everything that is exposed for sale in the market pays
a kind of duty. This is generally either in kind, or an equivalent in
salt pieces, the only money in Shoa. Grain is examined by the Governor,
to whom it is brought, who determines the amount to be taken as toll,
and which is regulated according to certain customary laws. Such toll
is measured by single handsful, a species of measure very usual in
Shoa, and called “tring.” Butter is submitted to a similar process,
the officer appointed scooping out of the gourd-shell, in which it
is generally brought, a quantity with his fingers, which is then put
into a recipient jar that stands by his side. The salt merchants,
cattle sellers, and, in fact, all dealers, pay for the convenience of
bartering their goods, and during the day large heaps of ahmulahs, and
of market produce, accumulate around the feet of the Governor, whose
perquisites of office they appear to be. A less profitable employment
for him is the settlement of disputes, as very long-winded debates
sometimes occur, before a settlement can be established between the
disputing parties; and for this business no fees are demanded, although
I have no doubt, such a situation of general referee in matters of the
kind, is very productive of private gifts.
People in the habit of attending the market compromise their tolls, by
a regular payment of from one to three ahmulahs weekly, and they are
then allowed to bring whatever produce they choose. I also understood
that the people of the town were exempted from any imposition of toll
for such articles they exposed for sale.
After amusing myself for some time, watching the proceedings at this
place for the “receipt of custom,” and had witnessed a decision in this
counterpart of the ancient Piepoudre courts of feudal times, I left
Tinta for a while to stroll about the market.
Excepting the dress and appearance of the people, the articles exposed
for sale, and the language in which the transactions were carried
on, the Abyssinian market, in its more prominent character, exactly
resembles similar assemblages of people in English towns; the same
confused hum of voices, busy ever changing figures crossing and
recrossing, stooping to look at wares, or pushing through the crowd to
make way to the seats of those selling that which they may require.
All is bustle and apparent confusion, over which loud cries of hawking
sales-people reach to the very outskirts of the town.
I pushed along with the rest, followed closely by Walderheros, carrying
the goat skin bag over his shoulder, in which to carry home the
ahmulahs we were in search of, in exchange for our dollar. For a moment
as we passed, groups would suspend their conversation to turn and look
at the novel figure that had intruded among them, and strangers, to
whom the white man was a curiosity, would inquisitively ask from the
townspeople all particulars of my nation, and my business in Shoa.
No impertinent interruption, or shouting in derision, made my visits
to this busy scene unpleasant; a short whisper, that I was a _balla
durgo_, and a friend of the Negoos, was sufficient to restrain the most
curious from pressing around, even when, on pretence of directing me in
choosing the ahmulahs, which was an opportunity that the more careful
frequently sought, to introduce themselves to my notice, and which was
generally, in such cases, the preliminary to some request for medicine.
The object Walderheros and I had now in view was to change the dollar,
and for this purpose we sought out that portion of the plain, where
in several orderly lines, numerous salt brokers sat behind heaps of
“ahmulahoitsh,” the remarkable currency of Shoa, in common with all
parts of Abyssinia.
These ahmulahs, as they may be called, are thin bricks of salt,
which have been not inaptly compared in size and shape to a mower’s
whet-stone; they vary some little in size, but few of them are less
than eight inches long. Their form is rather interesting, from the
fact of their being cut somewhat in the ancient form of money pieces,
thinner at the two extremities than in the middle, and if of metal
might not have been inaptly termed a spit. The breadth across the
centre of the ahmulah is a little over two inches, whilst at the
extremities it scarcely measures one inch. The height or thickness
is uniform, being usually about one inch and a quarter. As may
naturally be supposed, this money, consisting of a material so soft and
deliquescent as common salt, becomes denuded by use, and that a great
difference consequently exists between the weight of a new specimen,
and one that has been in exchange for only a few months. During the
rainy season, especially, in Abyssinia the waste of the ahmulahs is
very great, although the inhabitants, by burying them in the wood
ashes of their large hearths, or suspending them in the smoke from the
roof, endeavour to preserve them, at that time, from the action of the
moisture in the atmosphere.
It not unfrequently happens, also, that carelessness exposes them
sometimes to the chances of a quick reduction in size, by leaving the
ahmulahs in situations where mules or cattle can get to them; and
as all domestic animals are inmates of the same apartment with the
family during the night, these opportunities of robbing their master
by licking the salt-pieces, is frequently a temptation too great
for their virtue. It is amusing, also, sometimes to witness in the
market-place the contests between children who have been entrusted
with an ahmulah, and the flocks of goat and sheep with which they are
immediately beset. These circumstances are mentioned because they have
considerable effect upon the value of this sort of money, ahmulahs much
worn not being received as such at all, and can only be weighed against
weight in the ordinary mode of barter, in which case, I presume, they
lose their character as currency, and must be considered articles of
exchange alone.
As money, new salt-pieces are given during the dry months in the town
of Aliu Amba, at the rate of twenty for the most favoured Austrian
dollar. This is of the mintage of the Empress, Maria Theresa, and is
called “_sait burr_,” woman silver; and it is particularly insisted
upon, that to be genuine, these should possess certain peculiarities,
namely, that the bust of the Empress should bear a tiara or bandeau
placed in the hair, a star of many points upon the shoulder, and
beneath all, near to the rim, the letters F. S. It is of great
importance to travellers in Abyssinia, at least in Shoa, to be aware
of the predilection of the natives for this kind of dollar, which
will always bring in exchange twenty-five per cent. more than those
of the mintage of the Emperor, called “want burr,” man silver, and
even ten per cent. more than the Maria Theresa dollars, which do not
present these three important requisites. In the wet months of August,
September, October, and November, from sixteen to eighteen ahmulahs
only can be obtained for the best dollars, and for the others less in
proportion. During this time, it is with great difficulty that the
“want burr,” or Emperor’s dollar is taken at all by the Shoans. I
considered that twopence halfpenny was above the actual value of an
ahmulah in English money.
The salt-brokers are generally Christians, who proceed in little
kafilahs of fifty or sixty donkeys to the northern confines of the
kingdom of Shoa, to a town called Giddem, where they meet with
Mahomedan merchants, subjects of Berroo Lobo, the chief of the
Argobbah, or valley country, to the north of Efat. These latter
obtain the ahmulahs that they bring to Giddem from the salt-plain of
Ahoo, situated on the confines of the old kingdom of Dankalli, to
the south-east of the kingdom of Tigre. At Giddem the best dollars
are exchanged for twenty-eight or thirty ahmulahs; so that a profit
of nearly fifty per cent. repays the expense and trouble of carriage
for little more than a distance of forty miles to Aliu Amba. A like
increase in value is attendant upon farther carriage: thus sixteen
ahmulahs can only be got in exchange for the best dollar in Angolahlah,
which is about thirty miles from Aliu Amba.
No people are more troublesome than the Abyssinians in inspecting the
money, whether salt-pieces or dollars, that pass through their hands;
the former are turned over, spanned, balanced doubtingly in the hand
for several minutes before the final determination is taken. The worst
is, that the vendors generally insist upon choosing, or at least beg
to be permitted to do so as a great favour, out of the whole lot,
that may happen to be in the possession of the party from whom they
are receiving them; the time so occupied being sometimes provokingly
long. At length the single ahmulah is fixed upon, a last hurried look
over the remaining pile as they lie displayed upon the floor is taken,
then a glance at the chosen one in the hand, and with such an effort,
as if the party felt convinced that he had taken the least; he at last
reluctantly tears himself away from the fascinating examination of
their relative value.
Dollars, again, are first well scrubbed with the fingers, then spit
upon, followed by a good rub in the hair, and very probably, after all,
the coin is handed back with a sagacious shake of the head, as much
as to say, “I am not going to be done in that way,” but seldom a word
passes between the parties. A salt banker at length being found who is
content to take the chance of the dollar being a counterfeit, a good
deal of higgling then takes place whether nineteen or twenty ahmulahs
shall be given, but supposing the dollar is declared to be of the first
order, the broker in that case generally gives way, and the full value
is obtained.
It not unfrequently happens, either from carelessness or atmospherical
causes, that the ahmulahs become very cellular and light. In that case
the holes are stopped up with a paste of meal and fine salt dust, but
the ahmulah so adulterated is generally rejected at once when offered,
or a very considerable reduction is made in its value when any article
is purchased.
When by any accident the salt-pieces are broken, they are receivable
only as common salt, although sometimes, if but into two pieces, these
are bound round with a piece of very pliant tough bark called “_lit_,”
and at a diminished value still circulate.
Besides ahmulahs the Shoan markets are supplied with a rough broken
salt in thin broad pieces, of no use but for culinary purposes, by the
Dankalli, who bring it to Dinnomalee from the Bahr Assal, or salt lake,
near Tajourah. This kind of salt is of less value than the ahmulah,
and is only employed as barter, and the solid money-piece will command
weight for weight, one half as much more of the Adal salt; so that the
Shoans submit to a loss of just fifty per cent. of material for the
convenience of their clumsy currency.
The town of Aliu Amba being occupied by Christians and Mahomedans,
its market presents a much more varied appearance than either that of
Farree or Ankobar; the former being almost exclusively frequented by
Mahomedans, whilst the latter (which is held in the meadow adjoining
to the mill of Demetrius, on the road to Tchakkah) is as exclusively
Christian in its dealings. To judge from the character of the produce
sent to Aliu Amba market, it would not be difficult to assign the
greater amount of wealth in Shoa to the possession of the Christian
subjects of Sahale Selassee; but, on the other hand, it appears to be
a principle of religion almost, among the Mahomedans, to conceal the
riches they possess, so that appearances are not to be trusted. Had I
not known that the more wealthy of their religion invariably invest
their money in slaves, to supply the Dankalli and Hurrah dealers, I
should certainly have inferred from the scanty and very limited stores
placed before the saleswomen of that faith in Aliu Amba market, that
the Islam inhabitants of Shoa were exceedingly poor. Many of these
women sit for a whole day, offering, in exchange for anything in the
shape of corn that may be offered, a thimbleful of “col,” (antimony
used for blackening the edges of the eyelids,) a few lumps of gum
myrrh, a handful of frankincense, or a little shumlah, the blue and
red threads of unwoven cloth, brought from the sea-coast, and which
is used in forming the ornamental borders of their large body cloths.
Sometimes their scanty stock is increased by three or four lemons, or
as many needles. On the contrary, the Amhara (the name now given only
to Christians of this country) bring an abundance of cotton cloths, of
cattle, of corn, and are the only money-changers I saw, some of them
sitting behind high walls of new and good-conditioned salt-pieces.
Trade, in a great measure, is carried on by barter, an exchange of
commodities being much more general than purchasing with ahmulahs;
except in the case of cattle buying, when the price is generally fixed
at a certain number of these salt-pieces. For two ahmulahs a very fine
young sheep or goat may be bought, and the very best of the kind will
not sell for more than five. A good-sized goat, however, commands
a much higher price, ten or twelve ahmulahs being sometimes asked.
An ox for ploughing brings about seventy ahmulahs, or, if small and
intended for killing, may be bought as low as thirty. Horses and mules
vary in price from seven to twelve dollars. The latter are preferred
by the Abyssinians. I have been offered a very excellent horse for
two dollars, and have seen one blind, but in good condition, sold for
twelve ahmulahs, or about two shillings and sixpence.
The next principal thing in the market is the cotton cloths, which are
woven of one general width, about three quarters of a yard, and from
ten to fifteen yards long. Of the common kind are made the “sennafil,”
or wide short trowsers of the men, and the “shumah,” or waist-cloth, of
the women. The body-cloth, or tobe, is common to both sexes, but those
of the men being much larger than those of the women, are generally
double folds of the cloth, or four cubits in breadth, and at least
seven cubits long. Sometimes they are of an extravagant size. A narrow
border of the blue and red woollen stuff, called shumlah, woven into
the cloth, is the only ornament, and these coloured stripes will be
sometimes repeated at the distance of a foot from each other through
the whole length of the cloth These tobes vary in price according to
the number of these ornamental additions to the simple cotton thread,
of which the greater number are entirely composed. Four or five dollars
is a great price to give for one, but the one forwarded to our Queen
by Sahale Selassee was worth thirty dollars. I gave for a cloth for
Walderheros, which was ten yards long and three quarters broad, ten
ahmulahs; but when I wanted one a little finer, with a stripe across
each end of the blue and white worsted, for my own use, I had to give a
dollar for it.
The mekanet, or girdle, generally woven for the purpose, is considered
to be worth one ahmulah for a cubit, or from the point of the elbow
to the extreme tip of the middle finger, which is the only measure of
cloth in Abyssinia. Neither hats nor shoes are worn by the Amhara; but
the Islam men wear sandals, made something like the Dankalli ones,
and I think those which are brought into the market are made by some
settler in Aliu Amba, either from Adal, or the city of Hurroo, and not
by a native Abyssinian. I bought myself a pair, having worn out my
English shoes, and gave the sum of three ahmulahs (7½_d._) for them,
but Walderheros bargained for a sword-belt besides from the man who
sold them to me.
Among the articles of food exposed for sale, are great quantities of
grain in small skin-bags holding perhaps, four or five pecks, and
which may be purchased for as many ahmulahs. Barley is somewhat
cheaper than wheat, but the price is not so much less as I should have
expected. Marshilla, or dourah, is half as cheap again as wheat. It
is used principally as “_nuffrau_,” being boiled in water, and with a
little salt sprinkled upon it, eaten in that state. This dish forms the
principal food of the slaves belonging to the slave-merchants on their
journey to the coast, but in Shoa the slaves in Christian households,
as I have before observed, usually live in the same manner as their
owners, and are invariably considered as part of his family.
Peas, kidney-beans, and the common horse-beans are also used in the
same manner, and are generally sold so low as two Islam cuna, or nearly
two pecks, for an ahmulah. Onions and the green leaves of a species of
kail are hawked about the town, broken salt being exchanged, according
to the quantity that can be decided upon as the fair value, after a
deal of higgling between the two parties.
Tut, or cotton, and tobacco are sold for salt only, according to
weight, a rude kind of balance called _mezan_ being employed for this
purpose. This is a kind of steelyard, made of hide and wood; a piece of
thick cowskin is dried in the sun upon a round stone, till it assumes
the form and size of a small washhand-basin, which is suspended by four
thongs of skin to the thin end of a stick, about fourteen inches long,
heavy and thick at the further extremity. Notches are cut with a knife,
not in any regular manner, for about two inches from the scale end,
on the under side. These notches receive the bite of a cotton thread
loop, and when suspended by this, its position in any of the knots mark
no established standard weight, but merely that of the article to be
exchanged; of course such a weighing-machine can only be employed in
barter.
Honey and butter are not regularly brought to the market as the supply
is dependant in a great measure upon the season, scarcely any during
the latter part of the dry, and the earlier part of the wet season,
being to be obtained but through the favour of the Negoos, who forwards
to his governors or favoured guests large jars of these articles as
presents during the period of its scarcity. The manner in which butter
is preserved by the Abyssinians is rather peculiar; and I must observe,
that strictly, all the honey produced in the country is claimed by the
Negoos, who, however, generally gives some equivalent for it, so that
I never heard this _apparently_ arbitrary circumstance complained of;
although I have frequently noticed the clandestine manner in which
small quantities of this delicacy were obtained by the nominal owners,
who wished to have the opportunity of obtaining some few ahmulahs by
selling it to me. The kind that was exposed in the market for sale,
was the refuse of the first droppings of the comb, or merely the last
drainings mixed with more than one-half of fragmentary wax, and the
dead bodies of bees. The Abyssinians, to their credit, do not kill
these interesting and industrious insects, but place in juxtaposition
to the hive, supposed to be nearly full of honey, an empty one, and
in a very short time, the whole of the inhabitants of the older hive,
have commenced constructing fresh combs in the new one placed for their
convenience.
For one ahmulah a _winechar_, or drinking-hornful, holding about a pint
of honey, is obtained; and double that quantity of butter brings the
same price, so that I consider both articles very dear. Immediately
after the rains, however, three or four times this quantity of butter
may be obtained for an ahmulah. Besides cotton and tobacco, “_gaisho_,”
or the dried leaves of a shrub belonging to the same species of plant
as the tea-tree, is also sold by weight against salt; these leaves are
used as a bitter in brewing the native beer instead of hops. Six times
in weight of this article is given in exchange for one of salt, but if
weighed against cotton, four times the quantity of gaisho is given.
Tobacco in small round cakes, two inches in diameter, and half an
inch thick is also weighed in exchange for salt, two of tobacco being
considered equal to one of salt; it is grown in the _wana-daggan_
country, or where the climate is temperate, in contradistinction to
_daggan_, or highlands, and _kolla_, or lowlands. Tobacco is the
article in which the people of the wana-daggan chiefly speculate,
taking it down to the kolla country in exchange for cotton, seven times
its weight being then demanded. They also carry berberah, or the red
cayenne-pepper pods to the _daggan_, or cold country, where they obtain
wheat or other grain in exchange, five times the weight of berberah
being given. The quantity of grain given for tobacco depends greatly
upon circumstances; the eye of the seller, and the appetite of the
purchaser of the tobacco, determining the rate of exchange.
Besides these articles, all of which are exposed for sale in the
market-place of Aliu Amba, saddle-makers from Ankobar, spear and sword
manufacturers from the Tabeeb, or artificers’ monasteries, supply it
with their wares, and the industrious inhabitants of the latter also
bring hoes and plough-irons, and their women and children hawk about
the town, with loud cries, coarse earthenware utensils for sale.
No Hebrew pedlar is to be seen in this, or any other market-place,
though a recent traveller of Shoa has asserted such to be the case,
and to allow the assertion to pass without denying it at once, might
lead to some ethnological error among the naturalists of the human
race, who might be speculating upon the origin and descent of the true
Abyssinian. Such was the ignorance of both the Amhara and the Islam of
these people, that scarcely a stranger called upon me, but desired to
know if I were not a “Yahude” (Jew). I questioned them in return upon
the very subject, and none had even met with one, except some of the
travelled slave-dealers, the two or three pilgrims Shoa could boast of
who had visited Mecca, and who always advanced, as one evidence of the
extensive journeys they had made, that they had seen a Jew. The Falasha
of northern Abyssinia, speaking the Agow language, cannot be pretended
to be of Hebrew descent, and the more we hear of this interesting
people the more assured we shall be, that although practising somewhat
similar customs, no connexion, more recent than prior to the era of the
Exodus, can be traced between them and the Jews.
Having noticed everything that can interest the reader in an account
of an Abyssinian market, I shall now return home. Walderheros slings
over his shoulder a broad chain of ahmulahs, connected together by the
pliant _lit_ bark; ten of the salt-pieces reposing upon his chest, and
the other half-dollar’s worth in a corresponding manner hang upon his
back. Having arranged his burden, the change for one dollar, we proceed
together, saluting Tinta as we pass him, sitting in judgment upon a
case of dispute that has just arisen; with shoulders bare, the noisy
declaimant addressing him, gesticulates with much energy; the etiquette
of respectful undress, (unrobed to the waist,) admitting of the freest
exercise of the upper limbs, and a corresponding display of the most
approved oratorical action is the consequence.
The evening of the market-day in Aliu Amba, closes with similar scenes
of jollity to those which characterize the hebdomadal meetings
of farmers and their friends in our own agricultural towns; and
the expression “market fresh,” best expresses the condition of the
staggering Christians, and of the singing groups of male and female
Abyssinians returning home, who have been closing the labours of the
day with sundry deep potations of beer.