The next morning was a very busy one for Walderheros, as from my illness everything had devolved upon him. He had first to arrange with two surviving sisters of the late owner of the house, who came forward to claim sundry articles of furniture that had remained in the house after the death of their brother. In Shoa, when a man dies, leaving no male heirs, the King takes all that he died possessed of; even the widow and female children have no claim to anything but that which is granted to them by the justice and compassion of the monarch. These relations are, however, so far considered, that a small “memolagee” only is expected, and they are then generally allowed to retain the personal property of the deceased, but the landed estate is always retained and granted to some other male servitor capable of bearing arms. This concession, small as it is, does not extend to other ties of kindred, for a person dying and leaving only sisters or brothers, all kinds of property possessed by the deceased is seized by the governor of the town in which he had resided, for the benefit of the Negoos, and an account of all such intestate property is annually drawn up by that officer. When a governor himself dies, before his successor takes office, an inventory of every thing contained in a large store house is made, and sometimes all the articles, generally household furniture, are taken to be examined by the Negoos, who, retaining the most valuable himself, returns the remainder to the charge of the new governor. From these repositories are rewarded minor meritorious acts, and sometimes the things are exposed to sale by a kind of auction, and thus disposed of. It is not unusual for household furniture and utensils, instead of being carried to the _gimjon bait_, the King’s store house, the only public building found in the towns and villages of Shoa, to be allowed to remain in the house to which they have belonged, and in that case, the next holder upon whom the King has conferred it, comes in for these conveniences. It was so in my case, for I found that I had not only obtained possession of a house, but found it ready furnished also. One little drawback from my apparent good fortune was the circumstance that everything was in such a dilapidated and rotten condition, that I was not surprised at the governor not insisting upon such rubbish being taken to that general repository, the “gimjon bait.” The fact is, the good people of Shoa manage, as in every other country, to remedy by some conventional subterfuge any political or social injustice; and here, where the descent of property is diverted from its natural course by an arbitrary custom, the evil is counteracted by the exchange, during illness, of everything valuable in furniture or household utensils with near relations, for the most worthless description of the same articles, so that in case of death the Negoos gets a very sorry collection as the heir-at-law to the deceased.