648 Report on Shoa [No. 140. 



suits, and the courts are filled to overflowing with the chiefs and nobles, 

 who on these gala days cast aside their abhorrence for the use of water, 

 and appear dressed in clean white robes. 



76. The king reclines in state on his best velvet cushions, and the 

 royal alcove is tricked out with gay gold cloths and massive silver 

 ornaments ; seated on the ground immediately before the presence, 

 are his most devoted and valiant governors, and around his couch 

 swarm a group of young pages, the tableau being most probably 

 taken from the Old Scripture pictures, where cherubs are so profusely 

 introduced surrounding the principal figure. A long line of attendants 

 stretching on either side of the throne stand as fixtures against the 

 walls, each bearing in his right hand a straight silver sheathed falchion. 

 The room is of large dimensions, and the height and gloomy ceiling 

 in some degree compensate for the absence of architectural decorations, 

 whilst the lofty walls are relieved by a display of all the state shields, 

 which are profusely studded with silver bosses, crosses, and ornaments, 

 and depending from each buckler the velvet mantle droops gracefully 

 by its side, glittering in every hue and color of the rainbow. 



77. At an early hour, a horse- shoe table is extended the entire length 

 of the dwelling, and is so entirely heaped with viands, that not a twig 

 of the wicker work is visible beneath the load. Piles of wheaten cakes 

 touching each other, and strewed with fragments of fowls, tower up two 

 feet above the surface. Bowls of rich curry, decoctions of red pepper, 

 flanked by bottles of old hydromel, heap the groaning board, and nu- 

 merous slaves are ranged at intervals with large baskets of delicate 

 raw flesh, which has been just stripped from the slaughtered bullock. 



78. The preparations for the feast are completed by 8 o'clock in the 

 morning, when the great doors are thrown open, and a burst of wild 

 music from the king's band ushers in the company ; four hundred sit 

 down on the floor at a time, ranged in double row besides the table, the 

 chief men in the front rank, and every justice is done to His Majesty's 

 hospitality. The piles soon sink beneath the active attacks of the 

 guests, and the rising hum proclaims that the hydromel is of the most 

 potent quality. Numerous attendants are in waiting to administer to 

 the wants of the honored guests, by handing with their fingers from the 

 viands whatever is desired, and a piece of meat if not relished by the 

 first person into whose hand it 'falls, is passed to the next inferior, 



