In conjunction with all these different grains, and with a mixture of all, which is sometimes employed in the same brewing, it is not unusual to add a little real malt called _bikkalo_, generally in the proportion of double the quantity of gaisho. To make the bikkalo, a quantity of barley is placed in a flat dish and well wetted with water, a large stone being placed upon it. This presses the sprouting grain into one mass of a wheel-like form, which, when the operation has proceeded as far as is desired, is taken from the dish, a hole made through the centre, and it is strung upon a rope, where it hangs to dry against the wall, and is a common ornament of the interior of the houses in Shoa. On occasions of brewing, the quantity required is broken off, and its value as an ingredient is well-known, for a common Shoan proverb says, “the more bikkalo the better ale.” The proportions of the different ingredients are generally from forty to fifty pounds of grain, to which is added one pound of _gaisho_, and two pounds of _bikkalo_. From these quantities are made about thirty gallons of very good beer, but which, as I have observed before, will not keep more than ten or twelve days, which is one reason why ale is brewed generally in such small quantities. There is no beverage so largely indulged in by the Shoans, whether Christian or Islam, as tallah. The Hurrahgee people are also extremely addicted to drinking it, and when they arrive in the country, every saltpiece that they can get is sure to be spent in ale. It is, therefore, an essential on all occasions of rejoicings, whether of a religious character, or at weddings, and even at _funerals_. In fact, the number and size of the jars of ale provided for the company indicates the importance of the feast, or the wealth of the entertainer, whilst no one to whom the cornucopœia of ancient mythology is familiar, but detects at once, the origin of that poetical appendage to divinity, as he contemplates the parties engaged in celebrating these jovial meetings. Every one bearing in his hand, a deep drinking-horn, varying in length, from a long span to more than half a cubit, which, as he drains its contents, is handed to the servants in charge of the jars of tallah, who quickly replenish it, and return it to the thirsty soul. Each reveller keeps to his own rude flagon, and nothing could more strikingly typify agricultural wealth and rustic happiness, than the representation of one of these drinking horns; and which, ornamented and embellished by Grecian and Latin poets, still I believe to have been the original of the famous horn of plenty; probably derived from some Egyptian hieroglyphic, which well expressed the condition of man it appears so naturally to characterize. CHAPTER XXIV.