No one at Harar dared to speak of this event,
and we were cautioned not to indulge our curiosity.
[27] This agrees with the Hon. R. Curzon's belief in Central African
"diggings." The traveller once saw an individual descending the Nile with
a store of nuggets, bracelets, and gold rings similar to those used as
money by the ancient Egyptians.
[28] M. Krapf relates a tale current in Abyssinia; namely, that there is a
remnant of the slave trade between Guineh (the Guinea coast) and Shoa.
Connexion between the east and west formerly existed: in the time of John
the Second, the Portuguese on the river Zaire in Congo learned the
existence of the Abyssinian church. Travellers in Western Africa assert
that Fakihs or priests, when performing the pilgrimage pass from the
Fellatah country through Abyssinia to the coast of the Red Sea. And it has
lately been proved that a caravan line is open from the Zanzibar coast to
Benguela.
[29] All male collaterals of the royal family, however, are not imprisoned
by law, as was formerly the case at Shoa.
[30] This is a mere superstition; none but the most credulous can believe
that a man ever lives after an Eastern dose.
[31] The name and coin are Abyssinian. According to Bruce,
20 Mahallaks are worth 1 Grush.
12 Grush " " 1 Miskal.
4 Miskal " " 1 Wakiyah (ounce).
At Harar twenty-two plantains (the only small change) = one Mahallak,
twenty-two Mahallaks = one Ashrafi (now a nominal coin,) and three Ashrafi
= one dollar.
Lieut. Cruttenden remarks, "The Ashrafi stamped at the Harar mint is a
coin peculiar to the place. It is of silver and the twenty-second part of
a dollar. The only specimen I have been able to procure bore the date of
910 of the Hagira, with the name of the Amir on one side, and, on its
reverse, 'La Ilaha ill 'Allah.'" This traveller adds in a note, "the value
of the Ashrafi changes with each successive ruler. In the reign of Emir
Abd el Shukoor, some 200 years ago, it was of gold." At present the
Ashrafi, as I have said above, is a fictitious medium used in accounts.
[32] An old story is told of the Amir Abubakr, that during one of his
nocturnal excursions, he heard three of his subjects talking treason, and
coveting his food, his wife, and his throne. He sent for them next
morning, filled the first with good things, and bastinadoed him for not
eating more, flogged the second severely for being unable to describe the
difference between his own wife and the princess, and put the third to
death.
[33] El Makrizi informs us that in his day Hadiyah supplied the East with
black Eunuchs, although the infamous trade was expressly forbidden by the
Emperor of Abyssinia.
