Being thus attired in the costume of the country, and having drank a bottle of the very strongest barilla tedge, I felt quite recovered, and in reply to a message from the Negoos, inquiring if I were well enough to wait upon him that morning; proposed going at once to the palace, as I was anxious, whilst under the influence of the reaction, to get over a considerable portion of the fatiguing road home. It was ten o’clock, however, before a second messenger from the Negoos desired me to go immediately to see him, as he wanted me to give an opinion upon the respective merits of a number of rifles and other guns. Accordingly, on arrival at the palace, I was ushered into an inner apartment beyond the large central room, and which corresponded with the porch on the front side, where I had seen his majesty the day before. This opened, however, into a private court, at the farther end of which, was the house assigned to the female part of the royal household, as a residence. In the back porch, if I may so term it, therefore, I found the Negoos reclining upon a couch covered with a white cloth, and the usual yellow satin cushions at each end. He was in his customary dress, a large legumbigalla, like the one I had on, only ornamented with numerous bars of the red and blue shumlah, which adds considerably to the value of the cloth. He had also on his feet a pair of red Turkish slippers and white socks, the only European articles of dress he had adopted, and these he only wore in the palace; for whenever I have seen him in the fields around his palaces, he was always barefooted like his courtiers. I have often regretted that I, at that time, did not know how to knit, nothing would have pleased the monarch so much as to have learned the process, and seen growing beneath his fingers a well-formed stocking. In a cold country, situated like Abyssinia, knitting would be a most useful art to introduce among the natives, and I hope, therefore, if any traveller intending to visit that country reads this book, he will make himself acquainted with that mysterious accomplishment, which I can assure him is much easier than he may suppose.