MEMOIR OP BRUCE. 5^ 
and surrounded with a stone wall thirty feet high, 
and hroad enough at the top for a parapet and a 
path. The whole population of the town was at 
that time estimated at about ten thousand families; 
On the opposite side of the river Angrab was a 
large suburb consisting of about a thousand houses, 
occupied by the Moors or Mahometans. 
On reaching the capital, BrUce found that the 
king and Ras Michael, as well as the principal 
Greeks, to all of whom he had brought letters of 
introduction, were not then returned from their mili- 
tary expedition. In this dilemma, and knowing 
nobody to whom he could address himself, a Moor 
intimately acquainted with their chief, to whom he 
had brought a letter from his friend Janni, con- 
ducted him to a house in the Moorish town, sup- 
plied him with food, and promised to screen him 
from danger until he could procure protection from 
the government. Here he was soon discovered by 
Ayto Aylo, the queen's chamberlain, who had 
already heard of his renown as a physician. This 
functionary told Bruce that Welled Hawaryat, son 
of Has Michael, had arrived from the camp, ill of a 
fever which was supposed to he the small-pox, and 
that the Iteghe, or queen-mother, had sent to request 
his attendance at her palace at Koscam, to consult 
about the patient. 
In obedience to the royal mandate, he repaired to 
her majesty’s residence ; but the sick youth had 
received so much benefit from a charmed potion 
administered by a saint, consisting of certain mystic 
