490 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 
time known to be true, and the fear of Ras Michael threat. 
ening Gondar everyday, not a living foul was there but a 
monk belonging to: the church itfelf, who kept the key. ~ 
It was thought criminal to know what it was apparent 
Michael had wifhed to conceal. Petros no fooner faw his 
mafter’s face than, faying, It is he! he ran off with all the 
fpeed poflible: for my part, I was fhocked at the indecent 
manner in which the body was expofed; it affected me 
more than the murder itfelf, for it appeared as if it had. 
been thrown down upon the ground, the head, arms, and. 
legs lying in all forts of directions, and great part of his. 
haunch and thigh bare. I defired the monk to lock the 
_ door, and come along with me to Petros’s houfe. Petros was: 
a merchant who fold carpets, and fuch fort of goods ufed 
in the country, which he brought from Cairo. It was full. 
an hour before we could make him behave fenfibly, or de- 
liver me a {mall Perfian carpet, fuch as Mahometans ufe to- 
pray upon, that is about feven feet long and four feet 
broad, and a web of coarfe muflin, which I bought of him. 
J told the prieft (for Petros abfolutely refufed to return to 
the church) how to lay the body decently upon the carpet, 
and to cover his face and every part with the muflin cloth, 
which might be lifted when any body came to fee the 
corpfe. 
Tue prieft received the carpet with great marks of fatif- 
faction, and told me it was he who had challenged the 
murderers when carrying the body over the wall; that he 
knew them well, and fufpected they had been about fome 
mifchief ; and, upon hearing the king was miffing the next 
day, he was firmly convinced it was his body that had been 
buried. Upon going alfo to the place early in the morn- 
3 mg» 
