XII THE AUDIENCE CHAMBER 127 



changed their vestments, and another ceremony com- 

 menced. 



Meanwhile we were conducted, past a haH'-completed 

 observatory and the new palace stone buildings, to the 

 main audience chamber. Here we met Captain Cicco- 

 dicola, the Italian representative, M. Lagarde, or le Due 

 d'Entotto, as he prefers to be called, and his Consul, 

 and Captain Bulatovitch, the Secretary to the Russian 

 Embassy. After a weary wait of nearly an hour, we were 

 ushered into the great hall or Aderash and conducted to 

 a dais, the centre of which was taken up by a very hand- 

 some throne, covered by a canopy 18 feet square, made 

 of velvet with an M in gold surmounted by an imperial 

 crown, and supported by pillars of gold picked out in red 

 and green, the present of the French Government to 

 Menelik. The Emperor was half-reclining on a settee 

 in front of the throne, supported by pink silk cushions, 

 and surrounded by court officials and attendants, who 

 ministered to his wants from a white-clothed table bear- 

 ing an enormous pile of the thin cakes of native bread 

 called injerra, with a vase of flowers as its only orna- 

 ment. To the rio^ht and left of the front of the dais 

 were two small silver candelabra, each holding eight 

 very long thin tapers of the national colours, yellow, 

 red, and green. The dais was curtained off from the 

 rest of the hall by thin, flowery-patterned chintz curtains. 

 Passing behind the throne, we took our seats at two 

 tables laid on the Emperor's left^the eleven diplomats 

 at one, and we four travellers at the other. The Rases 

 and chief generals were divided into two groups, to the 

 right and left of the Emperor. Our tables were laid in 



