_August 14th._--Wallata Gabriel was a very good housekeeper, but unfortunately, like most other young women in Shoa, and, I believe, in all Abyssinia, she had a great many followers. Whenever Walderheros and I walked out, some one or other would always be manœuvring to get out of the house unobserved on our return; and although I was rather suspicious of some of her lovers making free with what little property I had, still I had as yet never missed anything. I had frequently reminded Walderheros of this weakness in his wife, but he always, in reply, appealed to me if she was not a good servant, although, he added, that it was for my convenience that he recognised her as his wife, and would previously have divorced her, only he thought that together they were so well adapted to manage my domestic affairs, that he could not do better than keep her. Coming in rather inopportunely this afternoon, after a long walk round the town, I could do nothing else but turn her away at once; whilst Walderheros expostulated with her paramour, among other severe things, asking him if he were not ashamed to intrude in such a manner when the _balla bait_ (the master of the house) was not at home. About an hour after I had dismissed Wallata Gabriel, an old lady, a relation of Walderheros, made her appearance, bringing some of the sweetly-scented herb called _Err-guftah_, as a memolagee. On requesting to know what she required, a long apologizing palliating intercession, of no ordinary character, was made for my delinquent housekeeper. She attributed my severity, she said, entirely to my not knowing Abyssinian customs, and turning to Walderheros, who sat on the raised rim of the hearth, stirring up the dry ashes with a stick, she upbraided him for not raising his voice in the behalf of his lawful wife. I was determined she should not return, and was dismissing the mediatrix with a positive refusal, when Walderheros looked at me with a most grievous expression of countenance, and lifted up the top of the straw bread-basket, to intimate, by its empty condition, how badly we should be off for dinner if I persisted in not recalling his wife. I could not help smiling, and the old lady, seeing me relent, put her head out of the door, and called out “Wallata Gabriel!” two or three times. The _fair penitent_ very soon appeared, for she had been sitting in the lane all the time, and came tripping in, laughing and looking quite happy at being reinstated, and without the least trace of sorrow or contrition in her countenance.