Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 4.djvu/20

4 master's death, as it very probably might have done; but, by the interposition of Ayto Aylo and the Iteghé, we got the unworthy subject banished to Maitsha, so that Welled Amlac remained attended by the servant who had been sick, with him, and was to be trusted.

to trouble the reader with uninteresting particulars, Shalaka Welled Amlac at last recovered after several weeks illness. When he first came to my house he was but very indifferently cloathed, which, in a sick man, was a thing not to be remarked. As he had no change of raiment, his cloaths naturally grew worse during the time he staid with me; and, indeed, he was a very beggarly sight when his disease had entirely left him. One evening, when I was remarking that he could not go home without kissing the ground before the Iteghé, he said, Surely not, and he was ready to go whenever I should think proper to bring him his cloaths. I understood at first from this, that he might have brought some change of cloaths, and delivered them into my servant's custody; but, upon farther explanation, I found he had not a rag but those upon his back; and he told me plainly, that he had much rather stay in my house all his life, than be so disgraced before the world, as to leave it after so long a stay, without my first having cloathed him from head to foot; asking me, with much confidence, What signifies your curing me, if you turn me out of your house like a beggar?

thought there was something of jest in this; and meeting Ayto Aylo that day at Koscam, I told him, laughing, of the conversation that had passed, and was answered gravely, "There is no doubt, you must cloath him; to be