76 THROUGH UNKNOWN AFRICAN COUNTRIES. 
on leather hinges. On one side was a raised platform, 
covered with cushions, for the exclusive use of the old 
nabob, while next to this was a small alcove occupied by 
his wife and daughter and their female attendants. 
There was a fire burning in the middle of the room, 
surrounded by a low stone curbing, on which usually 
rested a handsome brass coffee-pot and some porcelain 
cups and saucers. About a dozen slave boys stood about 
their master, or played with two monkeys that frisked 
around the place. Sometimes these boys, who were only 
about ten years old, would become too noisy, and cause the 
old eunuch, Hazach Jarro, to give them all a sound 
thrashing with his cowhide whip. Wal-da-Gubbra is a 
tall, thin man, rather blacker than the average Abyssinian, 
but with expressive, cunning eyes, and a large, forcible 
mouth. He is very proud, and conducts himself with 
much dignity, his high forehead and stately bearing giving 
him quite an intellectual air; and he is also a wonderfully 
shrewd diplomatist, exerting a marvellous influence over 
his people. His officers cringe before him, and seem to 
delight in holding their cloaks before him that he may 
use them as spittoons. He carries his weight of seventy- 
five years wonderfully well, continually taking long jour- 
neys on mule-back. A small black-silk embroidered cap 
adorns his head, and a loose gown of the same material 
reaches to his feet; while these, which like his hands are 
enormously large, rest in the ordinary Abyssinian sandals, 
made of leather and laced as far up as the ankle. 
His wife and daughter, evidently high-caste Abyssinian 
women, had very light complexions, resembling somewhat 
the Chinese, and were very stout. They were clothed in 
loose dresses of soft white Abyssinian cloth, and wore 
many silver ornaments of Abyssinian workmanship. I 
was astonished to see how well made some of these orna- 
