554 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



their own provinces to terrify the reft of their clans by the 

 mangled appearance they then bore ; for this was Ras Mi- 

 chad's intention in disfiguring them, and yet leaving 

 them alive ; to prevent therefore the fuccefs of this fcheme, 

 Fafil put them to death in their way before they reached 

 their own country. I confefs I was ftruck at the fineiTe 

 which completed Waragna Fafil's character in my mind. 

 What, faid I, kill his own people taken prifoners whilft 

 lighting for him, merely becaufe their enemies had cruel- 

 ly deprived them of their fight ! indeed,Woldo, that is 

 not credible. O ho, fays he, but it is true ; your Galla 

 are not like other men, they do not talk about what is 

 cruel and what is not ; they do jufl what is for their 

 own good, what is reafonable, and think no more of 

 the matter. Ras Michael, fays he, would make an excellent 

 Galla ; and do not you believe that he would do any cruel 

 action which my mafter Fafd would not perpetrate on the 

 fame provocation, and to anfwer the fame purpofe ? 



It now occurred to me why the three Galla, whom I had 

 ^maintained at Gondar, had constantly refufed to return in- 

 to their own country with the many fafe opportunities 

 which at times had prefented to them, efpecially fince 

 the king's retreat to Tigre ; neither had I obferved any de- 

 fire in Fafd's fervants, who occasionally came to Gondar, 

 of helping to reftore thefe unfortunate men to their coun- 

 try, becaufe they knew the fate that awaited them. 



Although the Lamb, and the other Galla his foldiers, paid 

 very little attention, as I have faid, to us, it was remarkable 

 to ice the refpcct they mewed Fafil's horfe ; the greateil 

 part of them, one by one, gave him handfuls of barley, and 



the 



