Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 4.djvu/94

 had no post, and in this he spoke the truth, but confessed that he had been sent by Abba Salama to bring the Itchegue and the Abuna to meet him the day of excommunication at Dippabye. It was further unluckily proved against him, that he was present with his brother at plundering the houses in the night-time when the man was killed; and upon this he was sentenced to be immediately hanged; the court then broke up and went to breakfast. All this had passed in less than two hours; it was not quite eleven o'clock when all was over, but Ras Michael had sworn he would not taste bread till Abba Salama was hanged, and on such occasions he never broke his word.

Immediately after this last execution the kettle-drums beat at the palace-gate, and the crier made this proclamation, "That all lands and villages, which are now, or have been given to the Abuna by the king, shall revert to the king's own use, and be subject to the government, or the Cantiba of Dembea, or such officers as the king shall after appoint in the provinces where they are situated."

I went home, and my house being but a few yards from the palace, I passed the two unfortunate people hanging upon the same branch; and, full of the cruelty of the scene I had witnessed, which I knew was but a preamble to much more, I determined firmly, at all events, to quit this country.

The next morning came on the trial of the unfortunate Guebra Denghel, Sebaat Laab, and Kefla Mariam; the Ras claimed his right of trying these three at his own house, as, they were all three subjects of his government of Tigre