Lavater to detect, in the indifference of his dull leaden eye, and the puckered corners of his toothless mouth, the lines of cruelty, cunning, and sordid avarice. His Highness's haggard form was supported by the chief ministers of Church and State--Abdool Rahman Sowahil, the judge, civil, criminal, and ecclesiastic, and Hamed Bunaito, the pursy Wazir, whose bodily circumference was in strict unison with the pomposity of his carriage. One Saleh Shehem, too, occupied a prominent seat in the upper ranks--a wealthy slave-merchant, whose frightful deformities have ennobled him with the title of "Ashrem," which being interpreted signifies, "he of the hare-lip." This trio alone, of all the unwashed retinue, showed turbaned heads, every lesser satellite wearing either a natural or artificial full-bottomed peruke, graced with a yellow wooden skewer, something after the model of a salad fork, stuck erect in hair well stiffened with a goodly accumulation of sheep's-tail fat, the rancid odour whereof was far from enhancing the _agremens_ of the interview. Izhak and Hajji Kasim, two elders of the blood-royal, with whom a much closer acquaintance was in store, were perfectly bald,--their patriarchal bearing and goodly presence affording no bad imitation of the scriptural illustrations by the old masters of the apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul. True to his word, the wag Aboo Bekr, as full of pleasantries as ever, had donned a preposterous tawny wig, quaintly manufactured of the fleece of a sheep; and in his smirking, facetious physiognomy was found the principal relief to the scowling satanic glances of the ill-favoured rabble, dripping with tallow, and redolent of abominable smells, who crowded the tent to the choking of every doorway. It having heretofore been the invariable maxim of the Sultan to exact a visit from the stranger before condescending to pay one himself, the departure from established rule in favour of the liege subjects of Her Britannic Majesty could not fail to prove eminently gratifying. Compliments of the most fulsome nature were bandied about with compound interest, as the coffee-cup passed round to the more distinguished of the Danakil guests. Promises of assistance the most specious were lavished by the authorities, in grateful acknowledgment whereof, Cachemire shawls, and Delhi embroidered scarfs of exquisite workmanship, were liberally distributed, and as greedily tucked under the dirty cloth of the avaricious recipients; and although, in accordance with the unpolished custom of the country, no sort of salutation was offered when the conference broke up, the filthy guests departed with a semblance of good humour, that had been observable in none at their first entrance.