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.
