43° TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



whip acrofs the eyes, another behind took hold of your 

 fword that was flung upon my fhoulders, and would have 

 ftrangledme with the cord if I had not fallen backwards ; they 

 all began then to flrip me. I was naked in a minute as I was 

 the hour I was born, having only this night-cap ; when one 

 of them, a tall black fellow, drew a crooked knife, and propo- 

 fed to pay me a compliment that has made me fhudder every 

 time I have fince thought of it. I don't know what would 

 have been the end of it, if Confu had not faid, Poh ! he is a 

 ivbite man, and not worth xhefcarifying: Let us feek his mafter, 

 faysGuebraMehedin,he will by this have palled the Gomara; 

 he has always plenty of gold both from the king and Iteghe, 

 and is a real Frank, on which account it would be a fin to 

 fpare him. On this away they went fkirmifhing about the 

 plain. Horfemen came to join them from all parts, and 

 every one that palled me gave me a blow of fome kind or 

 other. None of them hurt me very much, but, no matter ; 

 I may have my turn : we fliall fee what figure he will make 

 before the Iteghe fome of thefe days, or, what is better, be- 

 fore Ras Michael." 



" That you fliall never fee, fays Negade Ras Mahomet, 

 who entered the room in the inflant, for there is a man 

 now without who informs us that Guebra Mehedin is either 

 dead or juft a-dying. A fhot fired at him, by one of you at 

 the Gomara, cut off part of his cheek-bone; the next morn- 

 ing he heard that Kafmati Ayabdar was going to the hot wa- 

 ters at Lebec with fervants only, and the devil towhom he be- 

 longed would not quit him; he would perfift, ill as he was, to 

 attack Ayabdar, who having, unknown to him, brought a 

 number of flout fellows along with him, without difficulty 

 cut his fervants to pieces. In the fray, Tecla Georgis, a fer- 



vant 



