The dowry could be negotiated down from camels to lire through go-betweens

Evidence

Asha’s father had great expectations and demanded that the young suitor provide twenty camels for his daughter’s dowry. When the friends relayed the message to Osman, he jokingly remarked that his suitcase was too small to carry camels. He told them that all he had was savings of 1,500 lire. Osman implored his future father-in-law to trust him and promised that he would work hard to make his daughter happy and would treat the father with utmost respect. However the friends managed it, the old man settled for 2,000 lire, which a distant relative of Osman’s in Galkayo helped him with. The marriage was consummated on October 23, 1935. Asha remained in Galkayo until Ramadan was over, but eight days after the wedding, her husband went back to Mogadishu. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 157