No Hebrew pedlar is to be seen in this, or any other market-place, though a recent traveller of Shoa has asserted such to be the case, and to allow the assertion to pass without denying it at once, might lead to some ethnological error among the naturalists of the human race, who might be speculating upon the origin and descent of the true Abyssinian. Such was the ignorance of both the Amhara and the Islam of these people, that scarcely a stranger called upon me, but desired to know if I were not a “Yahude” (Jew). I questioned them in return upon the very subject, and none had even met with one, except some of the travelled slave-dealers, the two or three pilgrims Shoa could boast of who had visited Mecca, and who always advanced, as one evidence of the extensive journeys they had made, that they had seen a Jew. The Falasha of northern Abyssinia, speaking the Agow language, cannot be pretended to be of Hebrew descent, and the more we hear of this interesting people the more assured we shall be, that although practising somewhat similar customs, no connexion, more recent than prior to the era of the Exodus, can be traced between them and the Jews. Having noticed everything that can interest the reader in an account of an Abyssinian market, I shall now return home. Walderheros slings over his shoulder a broad chain of ahmulahs, connected together by the pliant _lit_ bark; ten of the salt-pieces reposing upon his chest, and the other half-dollar’s worth in a corresponding manner hang upon his back. Having arranged his burden, the change for one dollar, we proceed together, saluting Tinta as we pass him, sitting in judgment upon a case of dispute that has just arisen; with shoulders bare, the noisy declaimant addressing him, gesticulates with much energy; the etiquette of respectful undress, (unrobed to the waist,) admitting of the freest exercise of the upper limbs, and a corresponding display of the most approved oratorical action is the consequence. The evening of the market-day in Aliu Amba, closes with similar scenes of jollity to those which characterize the hebdomadal meetings of farmers and their friends in our own agricultural towns; and the expression “market fresh,” best expresses the condition of the staggering Christians, and of the singing groups of male and female Abyssinians returning home, who have been closing the labours of the day with sundry deep potations of beer. CHAPTER XVI. Visit from Sheik Tigh.--Strange news.--Arrival of Abdoanarch.-- Situation of my house.--Wallata Gabriel.--Baking bread.-- Vapour bath.--Cure for hernia.