ABSTRACT
The following day he set out for Sasogi where he cele brated the festival of John the Baptist. He then ordered his troops to destroy the mosques of the Arabs, and to burn their towns and to lay waste the country; all these things were done with great thoroughness. ‘Amda Seyon next set out on the march, crossed the River Zar’at If C h i ' and arrived in the country o f ’Arate which was inhabited by fierce savages. These people filed their teeth sharp, and were in the habit of biting off the ears and phalli of the dead which they dragged from their graves; and they bit off the ears and the members of every one they captured in the fields. They seized several of the Abyssinians and treated them in this way. ‘Amda Seyon took vengeance upon them, and massacred many of them. He then marched on to Hadjaya diTTJ?* where he camped for eight days and celebrated the festival of the Cross (Sept. 25). Whilst there he succeeded by a stratagem in killing a great many of these savages, and he gained much spoil. It seems that they were in the habit of carrying the ears and phalli of the dead in their quivers. After a march of six days he arrived at Bekuelzar •n+'-AHC« where he camped. He sent for the Muslim governor and threatened to lay waste the country if he did not deliver to him the people who had been forced to deny Christ and become Muslims. When these were brought before him it was found that some had been priests, some deacons, and others soldiers in the king’s army. When they made no answer to the king’s upbraidings, the king became wroth and had each of them beaten with thirty stripes of a cord whip, and branded with a slave mark on the breast and shoulders; and each had an iron collar put on his neck and chains on his hands. Then, knowing that the Arab governor was a rebel at heart, he put iron fetters on his hands, laid waste his country, and deposed him and set his brother Nasr ad-Dln in his place. He then marched to Waz V U s and ordered his soldiers to destroy the town of Get ; they did so and killed a large number of the Arabs of Harla A C A * who had tried to raid the king’s camp.
