COURTS OF THE PALACE. 149 



exposed to the action of the atmosphere, occasions 

 the bright red colour of the hill. The circum- 

 scribed, but nearly level summit, is occupied by the 

 several courts of the royal residence, the palace 

 buildings, long thatched houses, standing in the 

 centre of all. 



An irregular stockade of splintered ted (a juniper 

 pine), twelve or fourteen feet high, is carried around 

 the edge of the ridge, and the enclosed area, in its 

 longest direction, exceeds three hundred yards. 

 This is subdivided into courts, the first of which is 

 entered from the town by a low gateway that 

 scarcely affords passage to a person mounted upon 

 a mule, although it is a privilege of the principal 

 courtiers to ride so far before they dismount, when 

 they visit the Negoos. 



Through this court we passed, for about twenty 

 yards, between two rows of noisy beggars, male and 

 female, old, middle-aged, and young ; who, leprous, 

 scrofulous, and maimed, exhibited the most disgust- 

 ing sores, and implored charity for the sake of 

 Christ and the Virgin Mary. I was glad to escape 

 from their piteous importunity, and I passed quickly 

 through another row of palings by a narrow wicket 

 into a second court, something more extensive than 

 the other, where I found a crowd of people 

 listening to an orator, who, with shoulders and 

 body bare to his middle, was addressing three or 

 four turbaned monks who sat in an open alcove, 

 beneath the long projecting eaves of a thatched 



