cd that, croffing the deep bed o f a brook, a plant o f the
kantuffa hu ng acrofs it. I had upon my Ihoulders a white
goat Ikin, o f which it did not take h o ld ; but the king,,
w h o was dreffed in the habit o f peace, his long hair floatin
g all around his face, w rapt up in his mantle, or thin cotton
cloak, fo that nothing but his eyes could be feen, was
paying more attention to the horfe than to the branch o f
kantuffa befide him ; it took firft hold o f his hair, and the
fold o f the cloak that covered his head, then fpread itfelf
over his whole ihoulder in fuch a manner, that, notwith-
ftanding all the help that could be g iven him, and that I had*
at firft feeing it, cut the principal bough afunder with my
knife, no remedy remained but he muft throw off the upr
per garment, and appear in the under one, or waiftcoat, with-
his head and face bare before all the fpeftators.
T h i s is accounted great difgraee to a Ring, who always
appears covered in public. However, he did not feem to b e
miffed, nor was there any thing particular in his countenance
more than before, but with great compofure, and in
rather a low voice, he called twice, Who is the Shum o f
this diftrift ? Unhappily he was not far off. A thin old man
offixty, and his fon about thirty, came trotting, as their
eu'ftom is, naked to-their girdle, and flood before the k in g ,
Who was, by this time, quite cloathed again. What had
ftruck the old man’s fancy, I know not, but he.paffed my
h o r fe ’ laughing, and feemingly wonderfully content w ith
himfelf. I could not help confidering him as a type o f
mankind in general, never more confident and carelefs than
when on the brink o f deftrudion; the k in g alked i f he was
Shum o f that place I he anfwered in the affirmative, and
added,
added, which was not alked o f him, that the other was his
fon.
T here is always near the k in g , when he marches, an
officer called Kanitz Kitzera, the executioner o f the camp;
he has upon the tore o f his faddle a quantity o f thongs made
o f bull hide, rolled up very artificially, this is called the tar
rade. The k in g made a fign with his head, and another
with his hand, without fpeaking, and two loops o f the ta-
rade were inftantly thrown round the Shum and his fpn’s
neck, and they were hoth hoifted upon the fame tree, the
tarade cut, and the end made fall to a branch. T h e y were
both left hanging, but I thought fo aukwardly, that they
fhould not die for fame minutes, and might fu rely have
been faved had any one dared to cut them down ; but
fear had fallen upon every perfon who had not attended the
Sting to Tigré.
T his cruel beginning feemed to me an omen that violent
xefolutions had been taken, the execution o f which was
immediately to follow ; for though the k in g had certainly a
-delight in the fhedding o f human blood in the field, yet till
that time I never faw him order an execution by the hands
¡of the hangman ; on the contrary, I have often feen him
ihudder and exprefs difguft, lowly and in h a lf words, at
fu ch executions ordered every day by Ras Michael. In this
inftance he feemed to have loft that fee ling ; and rode on,
fometimes converting about Fafil’s horfe, or other indifferen
t fubjeéls, to thofe who were around him, w ithout once
refleéling upon the horrid execution he had then fo recently
occafioned.
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