434 T R A V E L S TO D I S C O V E R
The cadi tlien afked me, “ If I knew when Hagiuge Mai
giu ge was to come ?” Remembering my old learned friend
at Teawa, I fcarce could forbear laughing, “ I have no
wifli to know any thing about him, faid I;, I hope thofc
days are far o ff, and will not happen in my time.’* “ What
do your books fay concerning him? (fays he, affefting a
great look o f wifdom) Do they agree with ours ?-’ “ 1 don’r
know that, faid I,’ till I hear what is written in your books.’?
“ Hagiuge. Magiuge, fays he, are little people,enet fo .big as
bees, or like the zimb, or fly of.Sennaar, that come in great
fwarms out o f the earth, aye, in multitudes that cannot be -
counted; two o f their chiefs are.to ride upon an afs, and eve-
ny hair o f that afs is to be a pipe, and every, pipe is to play a
different kind o f mufic, and all that hear and follow them
are carried to-hell” “ I know- them not, faid I, and, in the
name o f the Lord, I fea r them not, were they twice as little
as you fay they are, and twice as numerous. . I-truft in God
I fhall never be fo fond o f mufic as to g a to hell after.an afs
for all the tunes that he or. they can play.” The k in g
laughed violently, I.rofe.to go away, for I was heartily tired
o f the converfation. I whifpered the Abyflinian fervant
in Amharic, to alk when I fhould bring a, trifle I had to
offer the king, He faid, Not that night, as I fhould be tired,
but deiired that I fhould now- go home, and. he would fend
me notice when to come. I accordingly went away, and
found a number of-people in the ftreet, all having fome taunt
or affronting matter, to fay. I paffed through the great
fquare before the palace, , and could not: help fhuddering,
upon reflection, at what had happened in that fpot to the
unfortunate. M. du Roule and his companions, though under
a protedlion which fhould have fecured them from aU
danger, every part o f which I was then unprovided with.
The.,
T he drum beat a little after fix o’clock in the evening.
We then had a very comfortable dinner fent us, c™ d s
flefh Hewed with an herb o f a vifcous flimy fubftance, called
Bammia. After having dined, and finiihed the journal o f
the day, I fell to unpacking my inftruments, the barometer
and thermometer firft, and, after having h u n g them up,
was converting with Adelan’s fervant when I fhould pay my
vifit to his matter. About eight o’clock came a fervant from
the palace, telling me now was the time to bring the pre-
fent to the king. I forted the feparate articles with all the
fpeed I could, and we went directtly to the palace. The
k in g was then fitting in a large apartment, as far as I cquld
guefs, at fome diftance from the former. He was naked,
b ut had feveral clothes ly ing upon his knee, and about
him, and a fervant was rubbing him over with very flanking
butter or greafe, with which his hair was dropping as: i f
wet with water. Large as the room w as,it could befmell-
ed through the whole o f it. The k in g afked me, I f ever I
ereafed myfelf as he did? I faid, Very feldom, but fancied
it would be very expenfive. He then told me, That it was
elephants greafe, which made people ftrong, and preferred
the lkin very fmooth. I laid, I thought it very proper, but
could not bear the. fmell o f it, though my fain fhould turn
as rough as an elephant’s for the want o f it. He faid,
I had ufed it, my hair would not have turned fo red as it
was, and that it, would all become white prefamiy. when
that rednefs came off. You may fee the Arabs driven in
here by the Daveina, and all their cattle taken from them,
becaufe they have no longer any greafe for their hair. The
fun firft turns it red and then perfectly white ;• and you II
kn ow them in the ftreet by their hair being the colour
3 I 2 o i