630 Report on Shoa [No. 140, 



custom obliges the subject to prostrate himself, and pays rather adora- 

 tion than respect, yet every complainant may tell his story without the 

 least hesitation or timidity. Judgment is always prompt, and generally 

 correct. At three o'clock His Majesty proceeds to dine alone, and after 

 the royal appetite is appeased, the doors are thrown open, and the 

 long table in the great eating hall is crowded with the most dis- 

 tinguished warriors and guests; harpers and fiddlers perform during 

 the entertainment, and singers lift up their voices in praise of his 

 magnificence and liberality; but the king during all this scene of 

 confusion and turmoil, still continues to peruse letters and issue 

 instructions until the table has been three times replenished, and 

 until all of a certain rank have freely partaken of his hospitality. At 

 5 o'clock, he retires with a few of his choice friends to the private 

 apartments. Prayers and potent liquors pass away the evening hours, 

 and the company depart, leaving only the favorite page to convey 

 to the inmates of the Harem, the royal commands. 



Midnight calls his Majesty from his couch to the perusal of psalms 

 and holy writings ; a band of sturdy priests in his immediate vicinity 

 during the live-long night continually chaunt a noisy chorus of hymns, 

 to preserve their master from the influence of evil spirits and bad 

 dreams, and daylight brings a repetition of the busy exercise on 

 horseback, when business or the fickle sky will permit. 



17. The nation displays a strange medley of good and evil, mildness 

 and cruelty. Superstition, religion and fanaticism in venerating the sove- 

 reign, and dealing out largess to the poor. They are drunkards and liars 

 of the first magnitude, and their minds being insensible to the charms 

 of exalted virtue, they are restrained from evil deeds by no moral influ- 

 ence whatever. Kind to their animals, slaves and females, they prac- 

 tice every species of barbarity upon their enemies, and are perfect fanatics 

 in their religious creeds which are of the most subtle nature. They are 

 fiercely arrayed against each other in hostile sects, and are only pre- 

 vented from carrying on war to the knife, by the local difficulties which 

 separate the parties. Easily irritated, their anger blazes up into a fierce 

 flame of passion, but like the crackling thorns, it is soon expended ; dull 

 in comprehending a joke, they delight in the broad antics of the court 

 buffoon ; and violent and litigious in their private dealings, they are 

 still not disposed to carry their wrath to extremity, or to allow amongst 



