Their house was of the better sort, built of splinted ted, and consisted of a central apartment, with recesses formed by the division of the space between two circular walls, which were placed at about four feet distant from each other. In one of these recesses was placed a bed-stead, covered with an ox skin tanned with the bark of the kantuffa, which gives to this kind of leather a red colour. A skin so prepared is called “_net_.” The kantuffa is a pleasing looking tree, and might be cultivated as a lawn shrub in England. It is a species of acacia, and the bright red seed vessels formed like those of the English ash, remaining after the foliage disappears, would diminish considerably, I think, the dreary aspect of a shrubbery in that season. In the other two recesses were numerous jars containing ale, grain, and water, and side by side stood four pedestal hand mills, in the rear of which a hole, knocked through the mud and stick wall, served the double purpose of a window and chimney. The large circular hearth occupied the usual situation, nearly in the centre of the apartment, which was itself not more than twelve feet in diameter. Two solid planks of the “_sigbar_” tree, each of which had been cut with no little labour from a single tree, formed a pair of folding-doors. The hinges on which they revolved consisted of strong projecting extremities on one side of the top and bottom of each, which were received into corresponding holes on the wooden lintel and threshold. At night the two flaps were secured by an iron hasp shutting upon a staple, that admitted a kind of wooden linch-pin to be thrust through. The _sigbar_ tree, of which these doors were made, is the principal forest-tree of Shoa, it sometimes attains the height of one hundred feet, with a diameter of not less than five feet. In flocks along its crushing branches, the flying “_gurazo_,” a species of monkey, makes the circuit of the forest, and to watch them, as they take the most fearful leaps from tree to tree, is most interesting. I have seen the dam, with a young one held tightly to her breast with one arm, exactly like a human being would do, fearlessly dart from the greatest height to the lower branch of a neighbouring tree, and quickly gaining its summit, keep well up with the rest, in their leaping progress.