When engaged writing, the duptera sits upon the ground, takes from out of his girdle an ink-horn, the tapering extremity of which being reduced to a kind of spike, he sticks into the earth by his side. The ink is a composition of powdered charcoal and gum arabic or myrrh, with a little water, and a very permanent ink is thus produced. I may observe, that excepting in the manufacture of ink, the Abyssinians of Shoa have no other use for the gum myrrh, and I have frequently been asked, “What else could it be used for?” As for using this gum as medicine themselves, or giving it for that purpose to their cattle or horses, they have no idea of any such thing; neither have the Dankalli, from whose country it is brought into Shoa. Having placed his ink-horn in the earth, the scribe then produces a small leathern case, in which he generally carries a supply of parchment, a few reed pens, and a large pair of scissors, to clip off the ridiculously small pieces of parchment upon which the Shoans write their ordinary letters, which have not, sometimes, a surface of more than one inch. A pen being formed, it is carefully examined by thumb-nail and eye, and is then either nibbled, to make it soft, or if it be too soft already, it is made finer by means of a large dinner-knife, which is generally carried in a small slip, in the scabbard of the crooked sword that curls its point nearly up to the shoulder of the right side, on which it is always worn. Everything being arranged, the parchment is held fast upon the knee by one hand, whilst the long and careful inscription is being made. The process of writing the shortest note is a very tedious one, for every letter is a capital, and although the Geez character, as a syllabic alphabet, is the most correct of any with which I am acquainted, and best suited for conveying exact sounds, still the required attention to the proper situation of the small vowel points, occasions considerable delay. Having given Tinta the required information, which was all carefully written down by the duptera, they left Walderheros and myself for a few moments, whilst they went in to the Negoos, with the improved report. In a very few minutes Tinta returned, and beckoning for me to come, as he appeared at the wicket in the second enclosure, I got up, and followed by Walderheros, entered the inner court, where I found the Negoos reposing upon a couch placed on one side of the porch, that leads into the principal apartment of the palace. All the buildings were of the same description as those of the other Royal residences, consisting of a wall of splintered ted, six or seven feet high, plastered inside with common red clay, and thatched. Outside from the projecting eaves were hung in great numbers, the disgusting trophies of Abyssinian warfare stuffed with dry grass.