The “salt” is a bar of that mineral, which is ordinarily carried and used in lieu of coin. I found that its value was, roughly, sixpence, as Mr. Vivian says. At an earlier date its purchasing power seems to have been less. “Pieces of salt, called tsho, are the monetary medium throughout the greater part of Abyssinia. This salt is obtained from extensive mines in the country of the Danakil, where it is cut into small blocks, eight inches long by one inch and a half in breadth, each of which is of a variable market value of between twopence and threepence.” (“A Journey through Abyssinia,” pp. 61, 62.) Evidently there has been “appreciation of salt” in the land of the Negus since 1862, when Mr. Dufton visited it.
[37]“A Journey through Abyssinia,” pp. 47, 48.
[39]Psalm lxxiii. 18.
[40]Chieftain. As in the feudal times in Europe there is a chain of allegiance—often enough broken—between the king and the mass of his subjects. This Ras was the “Deputy’s” feudal chief.
[41]Consul Plowden (1848-60), quoted in “Abyssinia and its people,” by J. C. Hotten, 1868, pp. 130, 135.
[43]“Mittheilungen der Afrikanischen Gesellschaft in Deutschland,” vol. iii. p. 32.
[44]“Abyssinia and its People,” by J. C. Hotten, 1868, p. 128.
[45]Mr. MacMillan, describing some of the incidents of his recent expedition to the upper reaches of the Blue Nile, told an interviewer: “We were roused at four in the morning by the wild screams of one of our people (a Somali), who had been seized by a big crocodile, which had crawled up the rocks. The brute had seized his victim by the head and dragged him to the water’s edge. By throwing stones at the crocodile we succeeded in making him leave the Somali, who, though terribly mauled, eventually recovered.”—Egyptian Gazette, October 21, 1903. Mr. MacMillan told me subsequently in conversation that the Somali, when he was attacked, was sleeping with his head on his arm, and that the crocodile seized both head and arm, with the result that the Somali put his finger in the crocodile’s eye. Mr. MacMillan was inclined to believe that this action made the reptile release the man. The guns and ammunition of the expedition had all been lost, and were at the bottom of the river, and the night was pitch dark.