_July 30th._--By cock-crow again Tinta’s servants were at my gate with straw, and Walderheros and Goodaloo went out to recommence upon the roof. We continued to be highly favoured by the weather, only a slight shower or two interrupting the otherwise bright sunshine in which I lay basking on my straw couch all day. A thick mist enveloped the whole length of the Ankobar range in front, which seemed to attract all the clouds, or at least condensed the moisture in the atmosphere to the west of Aliu Amba, leaving the more favoured country to the east beneath a clear and beautiful sky. The heavy bank of fog, however, prognosticated rain to us, and every time it caught the eye of Walderheros, he seemed to move as quickly again, as he supplied with fast filled arms the bundles of cimbyllal to the two workmen upon the roof. So expeditiously, indeed, did all proceed, that before sunset the whole was finished, although, for farther security and ornament, another day’s labour was required, which was promised with much self-gratulation by Goodaloo, who confidently asserted that had the house been thatched for the Negoos himself, it could not have been done more quickly or more scientifically. It being too late, and the men too tired to kill and dress sheep, Tinta’s servants partook, as last evening, of a plain repast with Goodaloo and Walderheros, consisting only of dry teff pancakes, and a sop or two in a shallow earthenware vessel of the cayenne soup. To improve this very poor dinner, I gave Walderheros an ahmulah to get some “tallah,” and he bought for that sum about fifteen gallons of excellent ale. This he and two of his companions brought into the house in three large jars, a girl following with the ahmulah, which, I expect, she had changed for one of her mother’s smallest, and after spanning the salt-piece before my face, with a very lackadaisical look, intimated that it was a very thin one, and she hoped I would give her a larger one instead. Walderheros, who was just as cunning as any of his countrymen or women either, always kept the ahmulahs he received in exchange for dollars in two bags, one containing the larger, the other the smaller ones. With the former, sheep and tobacco were purchased, as for these commodities none but the best ahmulahs are taken, whilst the latter were generally given in return for services performed by any of the neighbours, and which I paid for, according to Walderheros’s idea, far too liberally. In the present case, on my telling the girl she should choose for herself, down came the bag containing the little ones, the trick of which I was not then aware, and after a long search, none pleasing the lady, she withdrew, keeping the one which had been originally given to her.