Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 4.djvu/88

 These people, upon all public occasions, run about the streets, and on private ones, such as marriages, come to the court-yards before the houses, where they dance, and sing songs of their own composing in honor of the day, and perform all forts of antics: many a time, on his return from the field with victory, they had met Ras Michael, and received his bounty for singing his praises, and welcoming him upon his return home. The day the Abuna excommunicated the king, this set of vagrants made part of the solemnity; they abused, ridiculed, and traduced Michael in lampoons and scurrilous rhymes, calling him crooked, lame, old, and impotent, and several other opprobrious names, which did not affect him near so much as the ridicule of his person: upon many occasions after, they repeated this, and particularly in a song they ridiculed the horse of Sire, who had run away at the battle of Limjour, where Michael cried out, Send these horse to the mill. It happened that these wretches, men and women, to the number of about thirty and upwards, were then, with very different songs, celebrating Ras Michael's return to Gondar. The King and Ras, after the proclamation, had just turned to the right to Aylo Meidan, below the palace, a large field where the troops exercise. Confu and the king's household troops were before, and about 200 of the Sire horse were behind; on a signal made by the Ras, these horse turned short and fell upon the singers, and cut them all to pieces. In less than two minutes they were all laid dead upon the field, excepting one young man, who, mortally wounded, had just enough strength to arrive within twenty yards of the king's horse, and there fell dead without speaking a word.