THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 265 
him; but there is no fuch ceremony in ufe, and exhibi- 
tions of this kind, made by the king in public, at no period 
feem to have fuited the genius of this people. Formerly his 
face was never feen, nor any part of him, excepting fome- 
times his foot. He fits in a kind of balcony, with lattice- 
windows and curtains before him. Even yet he covers his 
face on audiences or public occafions, and when in judg- 
ment. On cafes of treafon, he fits within his balcony, and 
fpeaks through a hole in the fide of it, to an officer called 
Kal-Hatzé, the “ voice or word of the king,” by whom he 
fends his queftions, or any thing elfe that occurs, to the 
judges who are feated at the council-table. 
Tue king goes to church regularly, his guards taking 
poffleflion of every avenue and door through which he is to 
pafs, and nobody is allowed to enter with him, becaufe he 
is thea on foot, excepting two officers of his bed-chamber 
who fupport him. He kiffes the threfhold and fide-pofts 
of the church-door, the fteps before the altar, and then re- 
turns home: fometimes there is fervice in the church, 
fometimes there is not; byt he takes no notice of the dif- 
ference. He rides up ftairs into the prefence-chamber on 
a mule, and lights immediately on the carpet before his 
throne; and I have fometimes feen great indecencies com- 
mitted by the faid mule in the prefence-chamber, upon a 
Perfian carpet. 
An officer called Serach Maffery, with a long whip, be- 
gins cracking and making a noife, worfe than twenty 
French poftillions, at the door of the palace before the dawn 
of day. This chafes away the hyena and other wild beatfts; 
this, too, is the fignal for the king’s rifing, who fits in judg- 
Vo. IIL Ll ment 
