Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 3.djvu/335

Rh ment, or that part of the palace where it is; there is another called Jan Bet, or the elephant's house, that gives the name to another regiment; another called Werk Sacala, or the gold house, which gives its name to another corps; and so on with the rest; as for the horse, I have spoken of them already.

are four regiments, that seldom, if ever, amounted to 1600 men, which depend alone upon the king, and are all foreigners, at least the officers; these have the charge of his person while in the field. In times when the king is out of leading-strings, they amount to four or five thousand, and then oppress the country, for they have great privileges. At times when the king's hands are weak, they are kept incomplete out of fear and jealousy, which was the case in my time;—these have been already sufficiently described.

proclamations are made before the king marches. The first is, "Buy your mules, get ready your provision, and pay your servants, for, after such a day, they that seek me here shall not find me." The second is about a week after, or according as the exigency is pressing; this is, "Cut down the kantuffa in the four quarters of the world, for I do not know where I am going." This kantuffa is a terrible thorn which very much molests the king and nobility in their march, by taking hold of their long hair, and the cotton cloth they are wrapped in. The third and last proclamation is, "I am encamped upon the Angrab, or Kahha; he that does not join me there, I will chastise him for seven years." I was long in doubt what this term of seven years meant, till I recollected the jubilee-year of the Jews,