276 THROUGH SOMALILAND AND ABYSSINIA CHAP. 
(forty-nine of which were trophies of Adua), and past the King’s 
red negro drummers, in tall fisherman-caps, sitting in a semicircle 
striking the weird Abyssinian drum, which, it is said, can do all 
but talk. The trrp-trrp, boom-boom, of the drums will ever be 
remembered by us when recalling these scenes. Up the steps 
we walked into a great hall, the rough and simple construction 
of which made a good setting for the gorgeous line of feudal 
chiefs, bearing rifle and shield, and glittering with gold or silver 
accoutrements. These stood in a wide ring with their backs to 
the wall, each dark face and handsome war-dress making a 
perfect study of colour against the broken gray of the wall 
behind. The Europeans and civilised Indians filing in, with 
the other Europeans who stood flanking the King’s dais, might 
perhaps, to the eye looking for originality, have been called 
slightly incongruous ; but it would scarcely be exaggeration to 
say that nearly every native Abyssinian figure in the hall, if put 
on canvas by a capable hand, would have formed a picture to 
take the art-world by storm. 
Through the open door could be seen the green, rolling, sunlit 
plains of Addis-Abbaba, and from the comparatively prosaic 
episodes (to an eye sated with Eastern durbars) of modern poli- 
tical intercourse, the attention perforce wandered to the scene 
round that gray wall, to the green plains, and the great red and 
white army waiting outside. The mind soon realised that this 
state of society into which we had thrust our modern personality 
was an ancient and original one, which after a few years of 
contact with commonplace civilisation must vanish for ever. 
The King, his raised platform covered with silks and carpets, 
the silken canopy above him, the princes, rdses, and generals on 
his left, his state prisoners Ras Mashasha (son of Theodore) and 
Ras Selassie seated on the ground at his feet, and the Europeans 
in broadcloth or uniform standing to one side, have already been 
described by Count Gleichen. The King is certainly a fine man, 
with no humbug or visible conceit about him. Commanding 
in figure, sensible and open in face, he has the dignity of a 
thoroughly simple man. It is said that he rises early and works 
till evening, giving justice to the Shoans and managing his 
empire. He has a courteous and really genial smile, and appears 
to be a gentleman naturally and easily, without dramatic effort. 
His kind treatment of the Italian prisoners, when he was in the 
midst of success, seems to bear out this character. 
A few days after the first audience, on the 6th May, we had 
