ABSTRACT
On the following day after ten o'clock in the morning, we found ourselves in a relatively cool river-meadow, where the Turks were awaiting us. We had a short period of rest before being delivered to the Turks, which was done just as though we were cattle for slaughter, all of us being counted, for it was indeed for the purpose of slaughter that the Abyssinians were handing us over and the Turks were receiving us. We were well aware of the agreements, but placing our trust in God, we were awaiting the disposition of His divine will, happy to accept whatever fate was in store for us. At two in the afternoon, they put us on camels and we began to make our way to Ma'fua. 1 There were about eighty Turks, all with matchlocks, who had come to receive the prize. They formed a vanguard and rear guard and kept us in the middle for greater security, although the territory through which we were travelling was so uninhabited that we had nothing but wild animals to fear. We stopped for the night at the place where darkness overtook us, where the captain of the Turks, called Sardali, taking pity on our wretched state because of his kindly nature or perhaps he was preparing some trick motivated by greed in hopes that we would courteously give him something in return-, he had a treat prepared for us, inviting us to drink cava,2 which is a drink made from a certain seed like beans, which, toasted and ground, is put into boiling water which it changes into something much like chimney-soot water. This
is poured into small china cups and must be sipped slowly because it is extremely hot. 1 The taste is slightly bitter, and it has the effect of fortifying the stomach and providing sustenance during the day. Their use of this drink and the attachment they have for it are so great that they can never be in conversation or do business without a chavana 2
at their mouths, for that is the word they use for the china cup from which they drink it. And when any guest comes, the first thing immediately following the first 'God save you' is that they give him one of these chavanas to drink. Sardali followed this custom with us, and, after he had entertained us in this way, which was no small favour considering our wretched condition, we spent the rest of the night awaiting what would happen to us on the following day when we would be entering Ma~ua, where we arrived on camels at ten in the morning, the sorriest-looking, most ragged figures imaginable and, as such, were greeted with a thousand mockeries and shouts of derision, especially by the young boys, and it was only through God's mercy that they did not receive us with stones and old shoes. Although they spared us those, they did not spare us all sorts of bad names and other insulting words, which we the more willingly endured since they did not raise their hands against us or attack us bodily.
