CHAP. XXVII BRUCE'S DESCRIPTION 



supplies had been stored in the castle in the belief that 

 it could resist all the efforts of the Dervishes ; but its 

 defenders tamely surrendered, and everything was looted. 



From this place we crossed over to the great wall 

 which encircles the principal group of royal dwellings. 

 The wall here was, I judged, some i6 feet high, flanked 

 ■on the east by a square guard-house, and on the west by 

 a pepper-box tower. Its total length was about 200 feet, 

 a third of which, in the centre, forms part of the main 

 wall of the palace of Yasous 1 1.' 



Concerning the decoration of this building, Bruce 

 gives tlie following details : — 



In 1736, Vasous II., who was engaged in building liimself a 

 palace, welcomed to his capital a party of Christians, who had fled 

 from a massacre at Smyrna and were on their way to India, but, 

 missing the monsoon, had landed nearly penniless at Massowah. 

 Twelve of them were silversmiths, very excellent in that fine work 

 called fiUigrane. ... By the hands of these and several .\byssinians 

 whom they had taught, sons of Greek artists, whose fathers were dead, 

 he finished his presence-chamber in a manner truly admirable. The 

 skirting, which in our country is generally of wood, was finished with 

 ivory 4 feet from the ground. Over this were three rows of mirrors 

 from Venice, all joined together and fixed in frames of copper, or 

 cornices gilt with gold. The roof, in gaiety and taste, corresponded 

 perfectly with the magnificent finishing of the rooms ; it was the work 

 of the Falasha,- and consisted of painted cane, split, and disposed in 

 Mosaic figures, which produces a gayer effect than it is possible to 



' It was the attention which this emperor paid to the erection and decoration of 

 this palace that made his subjects christen him Yasous " The Little." They were so 

 disgusted at his devoting all his time to the arts of peace, that some of them com- 

 posed an elaborate satire (afterwards copied out on vellum), which described his 

 peaceful journeys to Koscani and Azzazo as though they had been warlike and 

 triumphant exploits. The sarcasm so enraged the unfortunate monarch, that he 

 immediately fitted out and started on the disastrous expedition against Sennar which 

 •cost him his life. 



- Thi.s is t!ie name given to the Jews resident in .-Vbyssinia. 



