Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 4.djvu/109

 ter of lupines, that no use could be made of it. I was a Sovereign, it is true, and my revenue was what wise men have said is the best, — the love of the people. It went, however, but little way towards supporting my dignity.

While the king was at Kahha, keeping the festival of the Epiphany, he received a very extraordinary visit from Amha Yasous, son of the governor of Shoa, offering his personal service and assistance to the king, and brought with him, as a present, 500 ounces of gold, and a thousand excellent horsemen ready equipt at all points. Upon his being presented to the king, two young noblemen were instructed to be ready to lay hold of him by the arms, and prevent his throwing himself upon the ground if he intended so to do. The king was seated upon the throne, very richly dressed in brocade, a very fine muslin web wrapt loosely about him, so as to hang in plaits, and in some parts show, and in some conceal, the flowers of the cloth of gold of which his waistcoat was composed. His hair was loose, combed out at its full length, and falling about his head in every direction, and a fork, like a skewer, made of a rhinoceros horn, with a gold button or head upon it, stuck thro' his hair near his temples; he was all perfumed with rose water, and two people flood on the opposite sides of the tent, each of them with a silver bottle full of it.

Amha Yasous with his thousand horse presented himself before the door of the tent, and rode on till he was compleatly in it; he then descended as in a great hurry or surprise, and ran forward, stooping, to the foot of the throne, inclining his body lower and lower as he approached, and, just before the act of prostration, he was seized by Tecla