a 
THE SOURCE OF THE-NILE, 67 
added, which was not afked of him, that the other was his 
fon. © : 
THERE is always near the king, when he marches, an 
officer called Kanitz Kitzera, the executioner of the camp; 
he has upon the tore of his faddle a quantity of thongs made 
- of bull hide, rolled up very artificially, this is called the éa- 
vade. The king made a fign with his head, and another 
with his hand, without fpeaking, and two loops of the ta- 
rade were inftantly thrown round the Shum and his fon’s 
neck, and they were both hoifted upon the fame tree, the 
tarade cut, and the end made faft toa branch. They were 
both left hanging, but I thought fo aukwardly, that they © 
fhould not die for fome minutes, and might furely have 
been faved had any one dared to cut them down; but 
fear had fallen upon every perfon who had not attended the 
king to Tigré. 
Turs cruel beginning feemed to me an omen that violent 
tefolutions had been taken, the execution of which was 
immediately to follow; for though the king had certainly a 
delight in the fhedding of human blood in the field, yet till 
that time I never faw him order an execution by the hands 
of the hangman; on the contrary, I have often feen him 
fhudder and exprefs difguft, lowly and in half words, at 
fuch executions ordered every day by Ras Michael. In this 
inftance he feemed to have loft that feeling; and rode on, 
fometimes converfing about Fafil’s horfe, or other indiffer- 
ent fubjects, to thofe who were around him, without once 
reflecting upon the horrid execution he had then fo recent- 
ly occafioned. 
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