Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 4.djvu/488

 this brutish people, that the king ascends his throne under an admission that he may be lawfully put to death by his own subjects or slaves, upon a council being held by the great officers, if they decree that it is not for the advantage of the state that he be suffered to reign any longer. There is one officer of his own family, who, alone, can be the instrument of shedding his sovereign and kinsman's blood. This officer is called, Sid el Coom, master of the king's household, or servants, but has no vote in deposing him; nor is any guilt imputed to him, however many of his sovereigns he thus regularly murders. Achmet Sid el Coom, the present licensed parricide, and resident in Ismain's palace, had murdered the late king Nasser, and two of his sons that were well grown, besides a child at his mother's breast; and he was expecting every day to confer the same favour upon Ismain; though at present there was no malice on the one part nor jealousy on the other, and I believe both of them had a guess of what was likely to happen. It was this Achmer, who was very much my friend, that gave me a list of the kings that had reigned, how long their reign lasted, and whether they died a natural death, or were deposed and murdered.

This extraordinary officer was one of the very few that shewed me any attention or civility at Sennaar. He had been violently tormented with the gravel, but had found much ease from the use of soap-pills that I had given him, and this had produced, on his part, no small degree of gratitude and friendship; he was also subject to the epilepsy, but this he was persuaded was witchcraft, from the machinations of an enemy who resided far off. I often staid as