Besides the little unpretending martab of blue silk, the Christian women, if they can afford it, wear large necklaces of beads, and the British Political Mission have greatly increased the stock of these ornaments that is now brought into the market. Those I have seen were made generally by a succession of loops, consisting of seven or eight threads of different coloured seed beads, collected at certain lengths into one string, through a large angular-cut piece of amber. Eight or ten of these loops formed a long negligee, which, ornamented with a large tassel of small beads, was a present suited even for the acceptance of royalty. The Mahomedan women, on the contrary, wear one string of beads around their necks, formed of a hundred large and differently coloured beads, among which bright red ones seem to be preferred. These are divided into lengths by the interposition of pieces of amber, at least twice as long as those employed by the Christian women in collecting together into one, the various bead threads of their necklaces. The silver bracelets of the Islam are also different in form from those worn by the Christians, consisting of two or three thick silver wires, twisted upon each other, and finished at each extremity by a beaten square head. This is looped around the wrist, where it remains until required as security for loans, the most important use, I think, of silver articles in Shoa, amongst all religious denominations. No golden ornaments are ever observed among the Shoans, for a sumptuary edict of the Negoos forbids his subjects the use of this metal; the royal family of course being excepted. CHAPTER XXIII. Wallata Gabriel dismissed.--Reinstated.--Comparison of different races of man.--Of human varieties.--Of the process of brewing.--Abyssinian ale.--Ingredients.--The horn of plenty.