Note 2 — Front matter

Speaking of the peasants of Sallaba, he says: “These primitive people are perfect artists in cow dung. With this material they make big jars in which to keep their grain, drinking goblets, and boards for the universal game, which the better class make of wood. I brought one of these away with me to show how universal this game is among the Abyssinians, from the chief to the peasant, and it reached the British Museum unbroken. This game is called Gabattà, and the wooden boards made by the better class contain eighteen holes, nine for each person. There are three balls, called chachtma, for each hole, and the game is played by a series of passing, which seemed to us very intricate, and which we could not learn; the holes they call their toukouls, or huts, and they get very excited over it. It closely resembles the game we saw played by the negroes in Mashonaland, and is generally found in one form or another in the countries where Arab influence has at one time or another been felt.” (“The Sacred City of the Ethiopians,” London, 1873, pp. 72-73.)