Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 3.djvu/224

202 of excommunication. He was exceedingly eloquent and bold, a great favourite of the Iteghè's, till taken in to be a counsellor with Lubo and Brulhè. He had been very instrumental in the murder of Kasmati Eshté, of which he vaunted, even in the palace of the queen his sister. He was a man of a pleasing countenance, short, and of a very fair complexion; indifferent, or rather averse to wine, but a monstrous glutton, nice in what he had to eat, to a degree scarcely before known in Abyssinia; a mortal enemy to all white people, whom he classed under the name of Franks, for which the Greeks, uniting their interests at favourable times, had often very nearly overset him.

next morning, about ten o'clock, taking Hagi Saleh and Yasine with me, and dressed in my Moorish dress, I went to Ayto Aylo, and found him with several great plates of bread, melted butter, and honey, before him, of one of which he and I ate; the rest were given to the Moors, and other people present. There was with him a priest of Koscam, and we all set out for that palace as soon as we had ate breakfast. The rest of the company were on mules. I had mounted my own favourite horse. Aylo, before his fright at Sennaar, was one of the first horsemen in Abyssinia; he was short, of a good figure, and knew the advantage of such make for a horseman; he had therefore a curiosity to see a tall man ride; but he was an absolute stranger to the great advantage of Moorish furniture, bridles, spurs, and stirrups, in the management of a violent, strong, high-mettled horse. It was with the utmost satisfaction, when we arrived in the plain called Aylo Meydan, that I shewed him the different paces of the horse. He cried out with fear