more fo, that I could not be even prefent at fo horrid and
bloody an exhibition.
T h e fuperiors appear at this time with their heads covered
as before their vaffals ; their mouth, too, is hid, and nothing
is feen b u t their e y e s : this does not proceed from modefty,
but is a token o f fuperiority, o f which, covering or
uncovering the head is a very fpecial demonftration. After
-this ceremony is over each man takes his bloody conqueft,
and retires to prepare it in the fame manner the Indians do
their fcalps. To conclude this beaftly account, the whole
army, on their return to Gondar, on a particular day o f rev
ie w ’ throws them before the king, and leaves them at the
gate o f the palace. It is in fearch o f thefe, and the u n b u i*
ed bodies o f criminals, that the hyamas come in fuch numbers
totheftreets, where it is dangerous, even when armed*
to w alk after dark.
T his inhuman ceremony being over, alfo the care o f
the wounded, which indeed precedes every thing, the kin g
received all thofe o f the nobility who had diftmguiihed
themfelves that day ; the tent was crowded, and he was in
great fpirits at the daughter that had been made, which
unbecoming pleafure he never could difguife. He men-.
tioned the death o f his uncle Guebra Chriftos with a degree
o f chearfulnefs, prefuming, that when fuch a man died on
his fide, many o f that rank and merit mult have fallen on
the other. Villages, appointments, and promotions, gold,
promifes, and prefents o f every kind, had been liberally
heftowed upon thofe who had prefented themfelves, and
who had merited reward that day by their behaviour.. The
k in g had been furniihed with means from the Ras, and ac-
6 cording
cording to his natural inclination (efpecially towards fol-
diers) he had bellowed them liberally, and I believe impartially.
Guebra Mafcal had not appeared ; he was waitin
g upon his uncle Ras Michael, looking after his own in-
terell, to which no Abyflinian is blind, and expofing thofe
bloody ipoils, which I have juft mentioned, to the Ras, his
uncle and general.
I h a d been abfent from another motive, the attendance
on my friend Engedan, to whofe tent I had removed my
bed, as he complained o f great pain in his wound, and
I had likewife obtained leave o f the Ras to fhift my tent
near that o f his, and leave the care o f the k in g ’s horfe to
Laeca Mariam, an old Have and confidential fervant o f the
king.
As thefe men were the k in g ’s menial fervants in his palace,
a number o f them (about a fourth) ftaid at Gondar
with the horles, and few more than 100 to 120 could now
be muftered, from about 200 or 204 which they at firlt were :
the arranging o f this, attendance upon Ayto Engedan,and fe-
veral delays in getting accefs to the Ras, who had all his
troops o f Tigré round him, made it pall eight o’clock in the
evening before I could fee the k in g after he entered the
camp ; he had many times fent in fearch o f Sertza Deng-
hel, but no fuch perfon could be found ; he had been feen
bravely fighting by Engedan’s fide in the entrance o f the
valley, when that young nobleman was wounded, and he
had retired with him from the field, but nobody could give
any account o f him, and the king, by his repeated inquiries
after him, fhewed more anxiety, from the fuppofition he
was lo ft,. than he had done for Guebra Chriftos his uncle,
. Z 2 or :