not upon any sound principle of husbandry, for the ripening of the tall grain must interfere with the full development of the lowly shrub, which is seldom more than three or four feet high. A cotton plantation reminded me very much of the appearance of the vineyard in the south of Europe, although the little snowball-like tufts of the burst pods, sprinkle the dark green foliage with numerous white spots.

My last ahmulahs having been expended, I had to send Walderheros to market again with a dollar, whilst I directed my attention, as all other visitors had departed, to the party now busily employed cleaning cotton, for as soon as the supply was brought from the market, Wallata Gabriel and her sisters, had set about preparing it for spinning. Flat stones, something larger than bricks, with a smooth upper surface, were placed upon the ground, my three factory girls kneeling down before them, each with an iron rod in her hands, about twelve inches long, and three quarters of an inch thick in the middle, and tapering to the extremities. This instrument is called a medamager; and with it a small quantity of seeded tufts of cotton, being laid upon the near end of the stone, is rolled out; the seeds, by the pressure being forced before the medamager, until they fall over the farther extremity of the stone. By this simple, but very effectual process a large portion of the cotton was soon in a state fit to be farther cleaned from dust

and other extraneous matter, and which is the next part of the process it has to be submitted to before it is in a fit condition to be spun into thread.

The instrument employed for this purpose is called duggar, and is a large bow, the extremities of which are connected by a strong line of catgut. The cotton to be operated upon is placed in a clean soft hide spread upon the floor, whilst a woman, kneeling, holds the bow in the left hand over the cotton, so that the string is just high enough to catch the topmost fibres, whilst with the other hand, in which she holds the smooth curved neck of a gourd-shell, she continually keeps twanging away, each vibration of the string scattering and throwing up quantities of the lighter filaments, whilst all heavier matter sinks, as if in a fluid, to the bottom. The finer portions, upon the summit of the heap, as it appears satisfactory, is taken off, and placed carefully in a large covered basket made of mat, and a fresh supply of the unclean cotton is added to the heap in the ox skin, when the twanging process goes on again for a short time longer until another interval marks the removal of more of the approved material into the aforesaid covered receptacle. An instrument, exactly the same as the duggar, is used in England by hat-makers, to clean wool and fur for hats.

After the cotton has been cleansed in this manner, the ox skin is removed, and the dirt

and dust resulting from the operation thrown away. The beautifully white dressed material is then taken out of the basket and piped, by portions being twined around the medamager, which being withdrawn, leaves a twisted lock. These, in numbers of six or seven, are folded together into a single knot, and laid by in a clean skin bag, until they are required for spinning into thread.

Long before Walderheros made his appearance on his return from the market, his voice was heard in the narrow lane that led from my house. He always made a practice of thus intimating his approach by conversing in a loud tone with any of the neighbours who might happen to be looking over the top of their inclosure, to examine the passers by in the hollow way beneath. Talking as he came along, he never concluded until after he had entered the wicket of my garden, and as he closed it behind him, a benediction, that might have been heard to the market-place, generally finished these conversations with his friends, just in time to begin another with me before he had entered the house.

As he now came in he took down from his shoulder the large goat skin bag, which formed the elegant purse for about ten pounds weight of salt, the small change for the dollar he had been nearly two hours employed in getting. One by one he arranged the ahmulahs in a long row, like a lot of thin narrow bricks, at my feet, that I might sufficiently admire their bulky character, and compliment him.

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NEGLECT OF THE FAST.

upon the excellent choice he had displayed in their selection.

His labours for the day closed with this, and the sun being nearly on the point of setting, the cotton spinners laid aside their reels. The father of Wallata Gabriel, Goodaloo, and Walder-Yoannes, all came in from the market together, and fast or no fast, young and old, on my proposal that they should taste some of my home brewed ale, a large gambo was broached, and soon disappeared, whilst they certainly did confine themselves to a meal of bread and cayenne wort, in which, as usual, a fowl had been boiled to rags, although Wallata Gabriel, out of a tender regard for the conscience of her religious old father, had fished up the bones with a spoon, that he might suppose its rich consistence depended only upon a thickening of meal.

CHAPTER XXII.

Carpentering.-Fit up a study.-Worshippers of demons.—Saroitsh. -English superstition.-Priestly benediction.-Tabeeb monasteries. Of their character and discipline.-Turning lathe.Drinking hours.-Female ornaments.-Sumptuary edict.

August 13th.-Walderheros was occupied all day splitting and reducing to proper dimensions the ted tree that was brought yesterday, and of which I had determined to manufacture an English chair. Goodaloo was also busy, as he had undertaken to make me a table, and which he managed to do very well, after a long day's labour. It consisted merely of a round basket open at both extremities, made by turning thin stripes of bamboo alternately, before and behind strong upright pieces of the same plant. This was completed by a top being constructed of the like material, dexterously interwoven upon a ray-like skeleton, which was afterwards lashed tight down upon the basket pedestal with thongs of raw hide, and in this manner an excellent round table was made, three feet and a-half in circumference, and more than a yard high.

I managed to put up a parchment window during the day in the mud and stick wall, over