102 A SPORTING TRIP THROUGH ABYSSINIA chap. 



During my stay in the capital I heard many httle 

 anecdotes related of the Emperor, which go to prove 

 both his sense of humour and how much trouble he 

 takes to see that his orders are obeyed. As the per- 

 sonality of a man who can put 500,000 rifles in the field, 

 together with 100 pieces of mountain artillery — to say 

 nothing of innumerable swarms of spearmen, mounted 

 and on foot — cannot fail to be of interest to English 



readers, I will insert one or two anecdotes here. On one 

 occasion I went up to the jjalace to see the beams 

 selected, which the Emperor had promised Captain 

 Harrington for the Residency building. When INIr. 

 Beru and I got there, the keeper of the king's wood- 

 yard was away, so we directed the sorting out of suit- 

 able timbers. Presently the man arrived, and, to my 

 surprise, rejected several of the balks, as not being good 

 enough. On asking the reason of this great solicitude 

 for Captain Harrington, 1 was told, that last year 

 Menelik had Qiven orders that a certain number of 



