Thefe people, upon all public occafions, run. about the
iireets, and on private ones, fuch as marriages, come to the
jcburt-yards before the houfes, where they dance, and ling
Jiongs o f their own compofing in honour o f the day, and pei-
form all forts o f antics: many a time, on his return from the
field with victory, they had met Ras Michael, and received
his bounty for finging his, praifes, ..and welcoming him upon'his
return home. The day the.Abuna excommunicated
the king, this fet o f vagrants made part o f the folemnity ;
th e y abufed, ridiculed, and traduced Michael (in lampoons
.and fcurrilous rhymes, calling him crooked, lame, old, and
impotent, and feverahother opprobrious names, which did
not affeft him near fomuch.as, thecridicule o f his perfon;;
upon many occafions. after,, they repeated this, and parti-
.cularly in a fong they ridiculed the'horfe o f Sire, who had
■run away, at .the battle o f Limjour; where Michael cried
out, Send thele boric to the mil!. It.happened that thefe
wretches, men and women, to the number of, about thirty
rand upwards, were, then, w i t ^ W different fongs,-celebrat
in g Ras Michael’s return to Gondar. The King and Ras,
after the proclamation, had juft turned to the right to Aylo
Meidan, below the .palace, a large field where the troops exerc
i f e . , C o n f u and th e k in g ’s houfehold troops were before,
and'about 200 o f the Sire horfe were behind; on a fignal
■ made by the Ras, .thefe horfe turned fhort and fell upon the
fingers, and cut them alhfo pieces; In lefs than two minutes
they were all laid dead upon the field, excepting one young
man, who, mortally wounded, had juft ftrength enough to
arrive within twenty yards o f the k in g ’s horfe,. and there
fe ll dead without fpeaking a word.
A ll
^ A l l the people prefent, moft° o f them veteran foldiers;
and confequently inured to blood, appeared, fhocked and
difgufted'at this wanton piece o f cru e lty .. For my part,, a’,
kind o f faintifhnefs, or feeblenefs, had taken poffefiion o f
my heart, ever fince the execution o f the two men on our'
march about the kantuffa ; and this fecond adt o f cruelty
occafioned fuch a horror, joined with an ab fen ce 'o f mihd,
that I found my felf unable to give an immediate anfwer,
though the k in g had Tpoken twice to me.
• I t was about nine o’ clock in the m o rn in g when we en tered
G ohda r; every perfon we met oil the ftreet wore the
countenance o f a. condemned malefadtor; the Ras went;
immediately to the palace with the k in g, who retired, as
ufual, to a kind o f cage or lattice-window, where he always,
fits unfeen wljen in council.' We were then in the council-
chamber, and“four o f the judges leated:; none o f the governors
o f provinces were prefent but Ras Michael, and"
Kafmati Tesfos o f Sire. Abba . Salama was brought to the
foot Of the table without irons, at perfedt. liberty. The
accufer for the k in g (it is a pofl in this country in no-
great eftimation) began the charge againft him w ith great,
force and eloquence? he ftated, one b y one, the,crimes com--
mitted by him at different periods, the fwm o f which a-
mounted to prove Salama to be the gfeateft monfter upon,,
earth ? among thefe were various kinds o f murder, efpe-
eially by poifon ;. inceft, with every degree collateral and
defcendant. He concluded this black, horrid lift, with the
charge o f high treafon, or curfirfg?the king, and abfolving
his fubjedls from their allegiance, which Kd ftated as the
greateft crime human nature was capable of, as, involving
in its confequences all forts o f other crimes. Abba Salama,
V ol . IV. K . th o u g h .