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The Tobes and sashes of Harar are considered equal to the celebrated cloths of Shoa: hand-woven, they as far surpass, in beauty and durability, the vapid produce of European manufactories, as the perfect hand of man excels the finest machinery. On the windward coast, one of these garments is considered a handsome present for a chief.
The chiefs, who come to pay their court, cover themselves with dust, and then fall flat on their bellies, having first practised the ceremony, in order to be perfect, before a large fat eunuch. It is also the court etiquette to appear in a loose cloth, tied under one arm; no tobes, no beads, no coral, nor grandeur of any kind, must appear, but on the king alone.
The Gudabirsi will seldom sell these horses, the great safeguard against their conterminous tribes, the Eesa and Girhi, who are all infantry: a village seldom contains more than six or eight, and the lowest value would be ten cows or twenty Tobes.
Barca Gana, although attacking against his own judgment, was among the foremost, and received a severe spear-wound in his back, which pierced through four tobes and his iron chain armour, while attacked by five chiefs, who seemed determined on finishing him.
The Arabs declared me to be a Shaykh of Shaykhs, and translated to the prettiest of the party an impromptu proposal of marriage. She showed but little coyness, and stated her price to be an Audulli or necklace , a couple of Tobes, she asked one too many a few handfuls of beads, and a small present for her papa.
The fair sex is occupied at home spinning cotton thread for weaving Tobes, sashes, and turbans; carrying their progeny perched upon their backs, they bring water from the wells in large gourds borne on the head; work in the gardens, and the men considering, like the Abyssinians, such work a disgrace sit and sell in the long street which here represents the Eastern bazar.
Here, white flocks dotting the hills, and the scavengers of the air warned us that we were in the vicinity of villages. Our wigwam was soon full of fair-faced Gudabirsi, mostly Loajira or cow-herd boys, who, according to the custom of their class, wore their Tobes bound scarf-like round their necks.
The other inhabitants are about 3000 Bedouins, who "come and go." Up to the city gates the country is peopled by the Gallas. This unruly race requires to be propitiated by presents of cloth; as many as 600 Tobes are annually distributed amongst them by the Amir.
He was rather fancifully dressed; and wore two tobes, the one nearest the skin being of black silk velvet, and the other of crimson velvet, lined with sarsenet; his boots were of yellow leather, neatly worked, and his wrists were loaded with bracelets of silver and copper.
They were handsomely dressed in Soudan tobes of different colours dark blue and striped with yellow and red; bournouses of coarse scarlet cloth, with large turbans of white or dark-coloured cotton. Their horses were really beautiful larger and more powerful than any seen in Bornou. They managed them with great skill. A parley was now carried on.
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