It is the constant practice in Abyssinia to beset the king’s doors and windows within his hearing, and there, from early morning to night, to cry for justice as loud as possible in a distressed and complaining tone, and in all the different languages they are master of, in order to their being admitted to have their supposed grievances heard. In a country so ill governed as Abyssinia is, and so perpetually involved in war, it may be easily supposed there is no want of people who have real injuries and violence to complain of: but if it were not so, this is so much the constant usage, that when it happens (as in the midst of the rainy season) that few people can approach the capital or stand without in such bad weather, a set of vagrants are provided, maintained, and paid, whose sole business it is to cry and lament, as if they had been really very much injured and oppressed; and this, they tell you, is for the king’s honour, that he may not be lonely, by the palace being too quiet. This, of all their absurd customs, was the most grievous and troublesome to Mr. Bruce. Sometimes, while Mr. Bruce was busy in his room in the rainy season, there would be four or five hundred people, who all at once would begin, some roaring and crying, as if they were in pain, others demanding justice, as if they were that moment suffering, or if in the instant to be put to death; and some groaning and sobbing as if just expiring; and this horrid symphony was so artfully performed, that no ear could distinguish but that it proceeded from real distress. Mr. Bruce was often so surprised as to send the soldiers at the door to bring in one of them, thinking him come from the country, to examine who had injured him: many a time he was a servant of his own, or some other equally known; or, if he was a stranger, upon asking him what misfortune had befallen him he would answer very composedly, nothing was the matter with him; that he had been sleeping all day with the horses; that hearing from the soldiers at the door that Mr. Bruce was retired to his apartment he and his companions had come to cry and make a noise under his window, to do him honour before the people, for fear he should be melancholy by being too quiet when alone, and therefore hoped that he would order them drink that they might continue with a little more spirit.