February
1927
When I stopped to visit the village headman, I was well received. Forage and flat-cakes made of teff and wheat appeared, together with enormous pitchers of ‘tal,’ an Abyssinian beer made of barley; and small pitchers of `taech,’ a remarkable beverage made of honey. [1] For some reason, chickens took the form of an extraordinarily small type of bantams. To make up for what they lacked in size, they came in great variety, duplicating the ordinary European groups. The eggs were very small, about half the size of the usual European kinds.
After changing guides, we went in the direction of Fiche, from where a road leads to the main agricultural area of Godzham. … We stocked up on an adequate amount of canned goods … and went on towards the centre of highland agriculture. The road was tolerable although merely a trail. The guide oriented himself fairly easily, but the compass and a detailed French map helped greatly. There was enough food for the mules on the savannah. Much water was found everywhere and it was always possible to get barley and provisions.
Bee keeping is widely practiced in the highland areas … . [2] The hives are suspended in a very primitive manner from the branches of trees, mainly acacias. A big cylinder, about a metre long and a half a metre in diameter, is used; a few cross-beams, also made of branches, are inserted into it and such hives are placed in the tree, often several together. Abyssinian bees are small and not aggressive. The honey extracted is melted and poured into clay pots, which are sealed. The price of honey is comparatively high: a 3-4 kg pot of honey costs 2-3 thaler, i.e. 2-3 [Russian] silver rubles at full value. The honey is, in my opinion, not very sweet but of high quality. Frequently a pot is presented as a gift to a traveller. Sometimes we received such a gift from local Abyssinian officials.
It is interesting that around Batumi, in the Caucasus mountains, Adzharian bee-keepers also use horizontal hives and often tie up to 30 of them onto the branches of trees, either plane trees or walnut trees. [3] 
Notes:
- Taech appears to be a transliteration of Tej, and you can learn more about it than any human could possibly want to know from Harry Kloman’s All about tej page. Can anyone shed more light on ‘tal’, which may be misspelled? [↩]
- And is still important. [↩]
- Is this interesting? I have the distinct impression that many indigenous beehives take this form. [↩]
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