THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 45 



These news occafionedFafil to throw off the mafk : he now 

 publicly avowed it was his intention to reftore Tecla Haim- 

 anout to the throne, and that, rather than fail in it, he would 

 replace Ras IV'Iichaei in all his pofts and dignities. He faid 

 that Socinios was created for mockery only ; and publicly 

 alTerted, that he was not fon of Yafous, but of one Mercurius, 

 a private man at Degwaffa ; and indeed he bore not, in his 

 features or carriage, any refemblance to the royal tamiiy 

 from which he pretended to be defcended. 



Socinios now faw that he was from henceforward to 

 look upon Fafil as an enemy. Orders were accordingly 

 given to fliut the gates of the palace, and to Hation a num- 

 ber of troops in the different courts and avenues leading 

 to the king's apartment. No perfon v/as to be admitted to the 

 king without examination. The drums were beat, and con- 

 llant guard kept; and three hundred Mahometans taken into 

 hL fervice as mulketeers ; a meafure that gave great oiiencc. 



Fasil had taken up his refidence in the houfe which he^ 

 longed to the ofEce of Ras, at the other end of the tcwn. ; 

 and, to fliew his contempt for the king, was very ilightly 

 guarded, his army remaining encamped under the palace. 

 One tli:ng at this time feemed particular ly remarkable ; a 

 drum was heard to beat in the houfe where Fanl was ^ 

 whereas it is an invariable rule, that no drum is luffered 

 to beat in the capital any where but in the houfe where the 

 king refides. It was faid that king Yafous, fecond fon to the 

 Iteghe, or queen-mother, and father 10 Joas, h-ad left two 

 fons by a flave of the queen ; indeed he had i'o many hv low 

 people, that very little care was taken of them, not even 

 that of fending them to tlie mountain Wechiie. One of 



F 2 thefc, 



