THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 1.S5 



The whole ftory was told diilindly to Kefla Yafous, who 



took it up in the moil judicious manner. He faid he had 



been detained at his tent, but had come to the king's pre- 



fence exprefsly to give Guebra Mafcal the juft praife he 



deferved for his behaviour that day : that he was very Jiap- 



py that [, who was near him all the adion, and was a ftran- 



ger, and unprejudiced (as he might be thought not to be) had 



done it fo juftly and fo handfomely. At the fame time he 



could not help faying, that the quarrel with Yagoube in the 



palace, the taunting fpeech made without provocation in. 



the king's prefence on the march, his apoftrophe in the field, 



and the abrupt manner in which he ignorantly broke in 



upon the converfation before the king, interrupting and 



contradicting his own commendations, fliewed a diftem- 



pered mind, and that he afted from a bad motive, which, if 



inquired into, would inevitably ruin him, both with King 



and Ras ; and he had heard indeed it already had done with 



the former. 



Guebra Mascal, now crying like a child, condemned 

 iiimfelf for a malicious madman in the two firft inftances : 

 but fwore, that on the field he had no intention but to fave 

 me, if occafion threv/ it in his way ; for which purpofe alone 

 it was he had cried out to me to fiand firm, for the troops 

 of Bcgemder were coming upon us, but that I did not un- 

 deriland his meaning. Guebra Mafcal advances nothing 

 but truth, faid I, to Kefia Yafous ; 1 did not perfeilly under- 

 fland him to-day in the field, as he fpoke in !his own lan- 

 guage of Tigre, and fiammers greatly, nor did I diftinaily 

 comprehend what he faid acrofs the pool, for the fame 

 reafon, and the confudon we were in : I fliall however moil 

 readily confefs my obligation to him, for the opportunity 

 Vol. IV. A a he 



