ABSTRACT
The servants are busy, the mules are saddled, the tent is folded up, and everything indicates a grand movement among the occupants of the Amba .Our German officials, clad in aristocratic shamas, and mounted on beautiful mules, which gaily paw the ground as if conscious of bearing Imperial saddles and of going to an Imperial wedding, lead the well-regulated body of shums and soldiers which constitutes the van, whilst we, borne along on stupid decrepit brutes, bring up the servants and porters, who form the rear. Printing and newspapers being still blessings reserved for Afric’s future, our numerous retinue, to satisfy their eager curiosity, pounce upon every wayfarer whom we encounter, and regularly cross-question him about the King, and the festal arrangements in honour of his auspicious nuptials. As we advanced, a party of strolling minstrels, which consisted of a cunning old scamp, a lad, and two young women, on emerging out of a hollow caught sight of us, and, notwithstanding our entreaties, they bawled and shrieked to the accompaniment of an antique-shaped lyre, strapped round their leader’s shrunken shoulders, in a chorus that certainly did credit to their lungs, though it inflicted a terrible penance on our ears. I would willingly have paid the contribution which these vagrants are licensed to levy on the traveller, had it only procured us immunity from their noise and company ; but as I was told that it would be an unpardonable offence to silence those who sang the praises of the King, and the charms of his youthful spouse, we were, in deference to royalty, forced for more than an hour to submit our ears to a most agonizing torture.
