THE SOURCE’OF THE NILE. 267 
ed, of good buffalo’s hide, and his fpear fharp-pointed with 
iron. His filver ornaments were only ufed when the carm- 
paign was over, when thefe were carried by this officer. 
Great. was the refpect fhewed formerly to this king in war, 
and even when engaged in battle with rebels, his own fub- 
jects. 
No prince ever loft his life in battle till the coming of 
the Europeans into Abyffinia, when both the excommuni- 
cating and murdering of their fovereigns feem to havé 
been introduced at the fame time. The reader will fee, in 
the courfe of this hiftory, two inftances of this refpect being 
ftill kept up: the one at the battle of Limjour, where Fafil, 
pretending that he was immediately to attack Ras Michael, 
defired that the king might be dreffed in his infignia, left, 
not being known, he might be flain by the ftranger Galla. 
The next was after the battle of Serbraxos, where the king 
was thrice in one day engaged with the Begemder troops 
for a confiderable fpace of time. Thefe infignia, or marks 
of royalty, are a white horfe, with {mall filver bells at his 
head, a fhield of filver, anda white fillet of fine filk or muf- 
lin, but generally the latter, fome inches broad, which is 
tied round the upper part of the head over his hair, with a 
jarge double or bow-knot behind, the ends hanging down 
to the fmall of his back, or elfe flying in the air. 
Arter the Lika Magwafs comes the Palambaras ; after him 
the Fit-Auraris ; then the Gera Kafmati, and the kaart Kafmae« 
ti, their names wii derived from their rank or order in en- 
camping, the one on the right, the other on the left of the 
king’s tent; Kanya and Gera fignifying ihe right and the 
left ; after them the Dakakin Billetana Gueta, or the under 
Ll2 chamberlain. 
