96 AN EXTRAVAGANT IDEA. 



hanging upon the wall, would, with the coolest 

 impudence imaginable, hold their noses when they 

 came into the house, as if it had become tainted by 

 being killed by Walderheros. 



Again, they always expected to have the first 

 cup of coffee handed to them, and, in fact, this was 

 the only refreshment they ever deigned to partake 

 with me. When my servant complained to me 

 that my visitors represented this, which my polite- 

 ness in the first place had induced me to practise, 

 to be an acknowledgment of their superiority as 

 Islam believers, I soon put a stop to the mistaken 

 idea, and if they did not choose to take the only 

 cup I had, after me, they went without. It was 

 some time before they became reconciled to the 

 precedence of a Christian, even in such a trivial 

 matter as this. In doing as I did, there was, perhaps, 

 but little credit on my side, for I opposed their pre- 

 judice from a zealous weakness that differed not 

 the least from the principle which had actuated 

 them ; but the heart of man is everywhere the 

 same. " Thus I trample," said Diogenes, " upon 

 the pride of Plato." "With equal pride," retorted 

 the insulted sage. 



Towards evening it was usual whilst I lived at 

 Miriam's, for me, attended by Walderheros, to walk 

 to the edge of the precipitous face, looking towards 

 the east, of the rock upon which Aliu Amba is 

 built. Here, upon a large stone, high above the 

 narrow winding footpath, that leads from one end 



