When I got up and stood before him, he seemed to be rather disconcerted, and not prepared to say any thing to me. There were few people there besides servants, most men of consideration having left Gondar, and gone with Fasil. After two or three squirts through his teeth, and a whisper from his brother Chremation, whom I had never before seen--"Wherefore is it, says he, that you who are a _great man_, do not attend the palace? you were constantly with Tecla Haimanout, the exile, or usurper, in peace and war: you used to ride with him, and divert him with your tricks on horseback, and, I believe, ate and drank with him. Where is all that money you got from Ras el Feel, of which province, I am told, you are still governor, though you conceal it? How dare you keep Yasine in that government, and not allow Abd el Jelleel, who is my slave, appointed to enter and govern that province?" I waited patiently till he had said all he had to say, and made a slight inclination of the head. I answered, "I am no great man, even in my own country; one proof of this is my being here in yours. I arrived in the time of the late king, and I was recommended to him by his friends in Arabia. You are perfectly well-informed as to the great kindness he did all along shew me, but this was entirely from his goodness, and no merit of mine. I never did eat or drink with him; it was an honour I could not have been capable of aspiring to. Custom has established the contrary; and for me, I saw no pleasure or temptation to transgress this custom, though it had been in my option, as it was not. I have, for the most part, seen him eat and drink; an honour I enjoyed in common with his confidential servants, as being an officer of his household. The gold you mention, which I have several times got from the late King and Ras el Feel, I constantly spent for his service, and for my own honour. But at present I am neither governor of Ras el Feel, nor have I any post under heaven, nor do I desire it. Yasine, I suppose, holds his from Ayto Confu his superior, who holds it from the king by order of Ras Michael, but of this I know nothing. As for tricks on horseback, I know not what you mean. I have for many years been in constant practice of horsemanship among the Arabs. Mine, too, is a country of horsemen; and I profess to have attained to a degree not common, the management both of the lance and of fire-arms; but I am no buffoon, to shew tricks. The profession of arms is my birth-right derived from my ancestors, and with these, at his desire, I have often diverted the king, as an amusement worthy of him, and by no means below me."--"The king! says he in a violent passion, and who then am I? a slave! Do you know, with a stamp of my foot I can order you to be hewn to pieces in an instant. You are a Frank, a dog, a liar, and a slave! Why did you tell the Iteghé that your house was robbed of 50 ounces of gold? Any other king but myself would order your eyes to be pulled out in a