“0 ‘TRAVELS TO‘DISCOVER 
municate you, Tecla Haimanout. And he was going on, 
when Tecla Mariam, fon of the king’s fecretary, a young 
man, ftruck the Acab Saat fo violently on the face, that it 
made his mouth gufh out with blood, faying, at fame time, : 
What! fuffer this in the king’s prefence? Upon which 
both Chremation and the Acab Saat were hurried out of 
the tent without being fuffered to fay more; indeed the 
blow feemed to have fo much difconcerted Abba Salama, 
that it deprived him for a time of the power of f{peak- 
ing. 
In Abyffinia it is death to ftrike, or lift the hand to 
ftrike, before the king ; but in this cafe the provocation was 
fo great, fo fudden, and unexpected, and the youth’s worth 
and the infolence of the offender fo apparent to every body, 
that a flight reproof was ordered to be given to Tecla Ma- 
riam (by his father only) but he loft no favour for what he 
had done, either with the King, Michael, or the people. 
Wuen the two prifoners were carried before the Ras, 
he refufed to fee them, but loaded them with irons, and 
committed them to clofe cuftody. That night a council was 
held in the king’s tent, but it broke early up; afterwards 
another before the Ras, which fat much later; the reafon 
was, that the firft, where the king was, only arranged the 
bufinefs of to-morrow, while that before the Ras confidered 
all that was to be done or likely to happen at any time. 
On the 24th the drum beat, and the army was on their 
march by dawn of day: they halted a little after pafling the 
rough ground, and then doubled their ranks, and formed 
into clofe order of battle, the king leading the center; a 
| : few 
