318 CHARACTER OF ABDOANARCH. 



with me that he was a cunning old fox, and that it 

 was as well to have as little to do with him as 

 possible, "for," said he, "he is older than you, 

 and cleverer than I am, and he will make us, mis- 

 sola oolet hiyahoitsh, like two donkies, carry his 

 grain to market. Abdoanarch, although crafty, 

 was not clever, and his first act as governor rather 

 startled Sahale Selassee, for he released all the 

 market people from paying the usual toll, and he 

 ought to have known that the monarch did not 

 bestow Aliu Amba upon him, for the purpose of 

 purchasing popularity among some very restless 

 subjects, the Mahomedans of Efat. No apparent 

 disapprobation, however, was evinced at this, and the 

 smiling Abdoanarch, proud in his place of honour by 

 the side of the King, little suspected how admirably 

 he was fooled to the top of his bent, like many 

 others of far superior education were by the master 

 mind that managed, like those of children, the shal- 

 low intellects that were politically opposed to him. 

 The only foreigner in Shoa, whilst I was 

 there, able to compete with Sahale Selassee, was 

 the Frenchman, M. Rochet d'Hericourt ; him the 

 King liked, and yet feared, but I am afraid he will 

 now have secured to himself a place high in the 

 royal confidence, whilst his daring schemes, suited 

 exactly to the genius of Sahale Selassee, will lead, 

 I am convinced, to an unlooked for revolution in 

 the political relations of the various petty kingdoms 

 into which Abyssinia is at present divided. Our 



