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.