50 THEODORE TI. AND THE 



ago first substituted for this kind of knight errantry a clumsy imita- 

 tion of the Western Kingdoms, unconsciously prepared the way for 

 the degeneracy of his race, and for the disaffection of a people de- 

 lighting in war. The imperial family, however, might still have 

 preserved, for a long time, its prestige, founded upon the national 

 and religious traditions of the country, if one of the last Negus had 

 not conceived the fatal idea of surrotiuding himself with foreign mer- 

 cenaries, whom the great vassals, uniting, expelled after a sanguinary 

 struggle. In this contest, tiie feudal lords learned to appreciate 

 their power. Their most daring chief, the ras Mikael, whose dra- 

 matic story Bruce has given in detail, did not shrink from regicide. 

 This crime, soon avenged by a coalition of his rivals who deprived 

 him of power and liberty, served, however, as a lesson to his con- 

 querors, who employed no other tactics than that of isolating the 

 Bovereign from the nation, dooming him to a life of idleness di- 

 vided between pleasure and frivolous studios. They succeeded 

 thus, in two or three generations, in creating a line of phantom 

 kings who still exist, adored by the clergy, despised by the nobility^ 

 and scorned by the warlike chiefs who seize upon the power> nofc 

 even doing them the honour to consider them dangerous. A travel- 

 ler who passed through Grondar, twenty-five years ago, found the 

 legitimate emperor of Abyssinia reduced to the manufacture of pe- 

 lisses, in order to live. Another European since then, crossing on© 

 of the ruined suburbs, lying alongside the deserted palace of the iVie» 

 gus, met a young lad about twelve years old, poorly clad, but proud 

 even in his poverty. He asked him his name. "My baptismal 

 name, replied the child, " is Ouelda-Salassie (son of the Trinity) \: 

 I am Nequs nagast (King of kings). He, also, was a scion of this- 

 dynasty of lawful Abyssinian princes, long since stricken with irre- 

 medial moral decline. 



Two or three men have attempted of late to reconstitute the power 

 invested in a single ruler, which can alone save the unfortunate 

 Abyssinian people. About 1830, there arose, in the Eastern pro- 

 vinces, a certain Sabhogadis who became, in reality, king of TigrCv 

 and in whom was realized the type of such a perfect prince as the 

 native mind loves and understands, being brave, pious, liberal, and 

 improvident. When a savage confederacy overwhelmed him at the- 

 battle of Mai-Islamai, in February, 1831, his heroic death was the 

 occasion of general lamentation. "Ah!" says a still popular song*;. 



