WALDERHEROS. 71 



I found the weather so exceedingly cold, and the 

 time at Angolahlah pass so uselessly and heavily 

 along, that I was very glad, after a week's stay, to 

 be again on the road hack to Ankohar. The day 

 previous to my leaving Angolahlah, I engaged a 

 servant, named Walderheros, tall, athletic, hut of 

 most ill-favoured countenance, so much so, that 

 "GooV to which eastern vampire he was compared 

 by the members of the Mission, became his cog- 

 gers should present him with a sword, with the hilt and handle 

 gilt, and also the whole sheath adorned with gold and silver and 

 set with precious jewels. The Ambassadors presented the sword- 

 hilt to the King, saying, ' Here is a sword, which King Athelstan 

 sends thee, with the request that thou wilt accept it.' The King 

 took the sword by the handle, whereupon the Ambassadors said, 

 ' Now thou hast taken the sword, according to our King's desire, 

 and therefore art thou his subject, as thou hast taken his sword.' 

 King Harold saw now that this was a jest, for he would be subject 

 to no man. But he remembered it was his rule whenever anything 

 raised his anger to collect himself and let his passion run off, and 

 then take the matter into consideration coolly. Now he did so, 

 and consulted his friends, who all gave him the advice to let the 

 Ambassadors, in the first place, go home in safety." — Mr. Laing's 

 Translation. 



This is in every particular so curiously analogous to our late 

 political doings in Shoa, that I could not induce myself t o abstain 

 from inserting it here as a note. Even the hint of personal violence 

 in the last sentence exactly corresponded with the treatment of the 

 Embassy whilst in Shoa, after the ill-judged letter of remonstrance 

 had been sent ; for had it not been for the moderation of the 

 offended monarch, it would indeed have been " Shanta fo, Shanta 

 fo," for the whole party. It was too late to find out that Sahale 

 Selassee was " a novice in European diplomacy," only when the 

 total failure of the Mission attested the want of tact and of all know- 

 ledge of human nature by the parties employed by a liberal and 

 too indulgent Government. 



