NOT VERY COMFORTABLE. 199 



friends, who, on ray taking np my quarters in her 

 house had congratulated her on the favour of Allah, 

 which was so evidently shown to her by another 

 " Gypt " coming to reside with her. 



The poor woman herself, however, was very 

 thankful for the few salt pieces I could offer her 

 weekly, and being sensible that it was only because 

 I had not more to give, she never annoyed me with 

 hints of disappointed expectations, or invidious 

 comparisons with the habits of my predecessor; 

 although others, who had no business to expect 

 anything from me, were much less delicate in their 

 allusions to the liberality of the " Kapitan," who, to 

 judge by the kind inquiries respecting him, made 

 by male and female, old and young, seemed to have 

 been a universal favourite among the inhabitants of 

 Aliu Arab a. 



Walderheros, whose greatest weakness was to 

 be considered the servant of a most powerful and 

 influential master, felt any sneers at my poverty a 

 great deal more acutely than myself, and which, 

 after all, he generally excited himself, by his 

 assumption of importance, and the affectation of 

 swearing by my name, " Ahkeem e moot," "may the 

 doctor die," if a thing was not so and so, as if I had 

 been a magnate of the land ; for besides swearing 

 by the life of the Negoos upon all important 

 matters, the dependents of Abyssinian noblemen 

 are accustomed, in private life, or on trivial occa- 

 sions, to asseverate the truth of anything by similar 



