490 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



time known to be true, and the fear of Ras Michael threat- 

 ening Gondar every day, not a living foul was there but a. 

 monk belonging to the church itfelf, who kept the key. 

 It was thought criminal to know what it was apparent 

 Michael had wifhed to conceal. Petros no fooner faw his 

 mailer's face than, faying, It is he ! he ran off with all the 

 fpeed poffible : for my part, I was mocked at the indecent 

 manner in which the body was expoled ; it affected me 

 more than the murder itfelf, for it appeared as if it had 

 been thrown down upon the ground, the head, arms, and 

 legs lying in all forts of directions, and great part of his 

 haunch and thigh bare. I defired the monk to lock the 

 door, and come along with me to Petros's houfe. Petros was 

 a merchant who fold carpets, and fuch fort of goods ufed 

 in the country, which he brought from Cairo. It was full 

 an hour before we could make him behave fenfibly, or de- 

 liver me a fmall Perfian carpet, fuch as Mahometans ufe to 

 pray upon, that is about feven feet long and four feet 

 broad, and a web of coarfe muflin, which I bought of him. 

 I told the prieft (for Petros abfolutely refufed to return to 

 the church) how to lay the body decently upon the carpet, 

 and to cover. his face and every part with the muflin cloth, 

 which might be lifted when any body came to fee the 

 corpfe. 



The prieft received the carpet with great marks of fatif- 

 fa&ion, and told me it was he who had challenged the 

 murderers when carrying the body over the wall ; that he 

 JJncw them well, and fufpected they had been about fome 

 mifchief ; and, upon hearing the king was miffing the next 

 day, he was firmly convinced it was his body that had bten 

 buried. Upon going alio to the place early in the mom- 



3 &"& 



