442 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



poffible magnificence, and with every mark of fincerc 

 grief. 



Though the prophets had not juft fucceeded in what 

 they foretold, they kept neverthelefs a good countenance. 

 It is true that no blood was fhcd, nor did the king die be- 

 fore he returned to Gondar ; but his mother died when he 

 was away, and that was much, the fame thing, for they 

 contended that it was not a great miftake, from the bare 

 authority of a comet, to err only in the fex of the perfon 

 that was to die ; a queen for a king was very near calcu- 

 lation. As for the bloody ftory, and the king's death, they 

 faid they had miftaken the year in computing, but that 

 it Hill Was to happen ( when it pleafed God ) Jome other 

 Urns. 



Every body agreed that thcfe explanations wei*e the befl 

 poffible, excepting the king, who perceived a degree of ma- 

 lice in the foretelling his death and certain lofs of his army 

 juft at the inftant he was taking the field. But he difgui- 

 fed his refentment under ftrong irony, with which he at- 

 tacked thcfe diviners incefiantly. He had inquired accu- 

 rately the day of his mother's death : " How is it, fays he ta 

 his chaplain, (or kecs hatze ) that this comet fhould come 

 xoforetd my mother's death, when £he was dead four days 

 before it appeared ?" Another day, to the fame perfon he 

 faid, " I fear you do my mother too much honour at the 

 expcnce of religion. Is it decent to fuppofc that fuch a 

 ftar, the moft remarkable appearance at the birth of Clirifi» 

 Ihould now be employed on no greater errand than to 

 foretel the death of the daughter of Guebra Mafcal ?" Tliefe, 

 and many more fuch railleries, accounted by thefe vifion- 



aries. 



