366 KINDNESS OF A PRIEST. 



a good Mahomedan, and having by my example on 

 more than one occasion, tempted him and the 

 others of my household to indulge in food when 

 they ought to have been observing a stricter disci- 

 pline — after all this, on the day appointed for 

 rejoicing, to see all appetite taken from me was so 

 evidently a judgment from heaven, that I was 

 strongly recommended to propitiate the Virgin 

 Mary immediately by bestowing the goat, which 

 the Negoos had sent to me at Myolones, upon a 

 church dedicated to the Mother of Christ. So 

 disinterested in fact, was Walderheros, that he 

 went off to procure one of the priests upon the 

 establishment, and who, when he arrived, had I 

 carried out my servant's intentions, would have 

 walked away with the goat immediately, such was 

 his anxiety for my restoration to the favour of 

 heaven. 



I could not be very well angry with Walderheros, 

 and I was too ill either to laugh at, or to endeavour 

 to convert the priest, so I dismissed him with an 

 ahmulah, for his willingness to relieve me of the 

 supposed ban under which I was laid. When he 

 was gone, however, the weather having cleared up 

 a little, I directed my servants to kill the goat, and 

 to ask such of their Christian friends who lived in 

 Aliu Amba to come to the party on the occasion, 

 as I wanted it eaten up, that no temptation should 

 exist to divert me from my resolution not to take 

 any animal food. 



