THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 3068 
%nown that Michael and his army were to be made prifon- 
ers, that the rebel army increafed to above 60,000 men; 
«cowards and brave, old and young, veteran foldiers and 
blackguards, all came to be {pectators of that defirable e- 
vent, which many of the wifeft had defpaired of living to 
fee. I believe the king’s army never amounted to 26,000 
men ; and, by defertion and other caufes, when we retreated 
to Gondar, I do not fuppofe the army was 16,000, moftly 
from the province ofTigré. Fafil, indeed, had not joined; and 
putting his army of 12,000 men, (I make no account of the 
‘wild Galla beyond the Nile) I do not imagine that‘any king 
of Abyflinia ever commanded 40,000 effective men at any 
time, or upon any caufe whatever, exclufive:of his houfe- 
hold troops. 
Tuer ftandards are large ftaves, furmounted at the top 
with a hollow ball; below this is a tube in which the ftaff 
is fixed; and immediately below the ball,.a narrow ftripe 
of filk made forked, or fwallow-tailed, like a vane, and fel- 
dom much broader. Inthe war of Begemder we firft {aw co- 
lours like a flag hoifted for king Theodorus. They were red, 
about eight ‘feet long and near three feet broad; but they 
never appeared but two days; and the fuccefs that atrended 
their firft appearance was fuch that did not bid fair to bring 
them into fafhion. 
Tue ftandards of the infantry have their flags painted 
two colours cro{sways—yellow, white, red, or green. The 
horfe have all a lion upon their flag*, fome a red, fome a 
green, 
* The-firft invention is attributed to the Portuguele. 
