394 A SPORTING TRIP THROUGH ABYSSINIA 



sented as encumbered with a voluminous cloak, standing 

 on the hind-foot of a very diminutive lion with huge 

 mane and claws, one spear sticking through the loose 

 skin of the shoulder, while the king is just about to 

 plunge another into it. Looking over the back of the 

 first is another lion, with teeth like a hay-cutter. Out- 

 side the church the Shum met me, and we went down to 

 Ledj Marcha, who received us all in his house, where, 

 while we waited for the Emperor's letters to be fetched 

 from my camp, the Shum tried a case. The prisoner 

 was accused of loading his riHe and threatening to shoot 

 another man. The whole scene was very dramatic — the 

 Shum seated with his scribe and advisers round him, 

 while the prisoner and his accuser, with their witnesses 

 and friends, formed two little groups opposite. There 

 seemed to be no rules as to examination and cross- 

 examination of witnesses. A man. with his right shoulder 

 bared, would state what he knew of the case, gradually 

 dropping his voice as the climax was reached, and then 

 raising it to a yell, as he violently struck the palm of his 

 hand on another man's to emphasise the oath, 'T speak 

 the truth, he lies." Immediately the other side replied in 

 the same strain, and so on it went ad infinit2iin. I asked 

 Ledj Marcha when the trial would be concluded : he 

 said both parties were wealthy, and so it was likely to go 

 on for weeks. The room we were sitting in was shaped 

 like a Latin cross, with a mud -floor, a lofty ceiling 

 supported by huge beams, and walls of stone set in mud. 

 The four rooms which filled the angles between the arms 

 of the cross were used respectively as a mule-stable, cow- 

 byre, store-room, and a pantry from which the servant girls 



