£68 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER) 
chamberlain; then the fecretary* for the king’s com- 
mands; after him the right and left Azages, or generals ; 
after them Rak Maffery, after him the bafha, after him 
Kafmati of Damot, then of Samen, then Amhara, and, laft 
of all, Tigre, before whom ftands a golden cup upon a cu- 
fhion, and he is called Nebrit, as being governor of Axum, 
or keeper of the book of the law fuppofed to be there. 
Arter the governor of Tigre comes the Acab Saat, or 
guardian of the fire, and the chief ecclefiaftical officer of 
the king’s houfehold. Some have faid that this officer was 
appointed to attend the king at the time of eating, and that 
it was his province to order both meat and drink to be with- 
drawn whenever he faw the king inclined to excefs. If this 
was really his office, he never ufed it in my time, nor, as 
far as I could learn, for feveral reigns before. Befides, no 
king eats in public, or before any perfon but flaves; and he 
never would chufe that time to commit excefs, in which he 
might be controuled by a fubjeCt, even if it was that fub- 
ject’s right to be prefent when the king eats, as it is not. 
Arter the Acab Saat comes the firft mafter of the houfe- 
hold; then the Betwudet, or Ras; laft of all the king gives 
his fentence, which is final, and fends it to the table, from 
the balcony where he is then fitting, by the officer called, as 
aforementioned, Kal-Hatzé. 
We meet in Abyfiinia with various ufages, which many 
have hitherto thought to be peculiar to thofe ancient na- 
tions 
* Hatzé Azazé,. 
