After the king returned to the palace, great diversion was made at Guangoul's appearance, in so much that Ozoro Esther, who hated the very name of Galla, and of this race in particular, insisted upon seeing a representation of it. Doho, accordingly, a dwarf belonging to Ras Michael, very ugly, with a monstrous big head, but very sharp and clever, and capable of acting his part, was brought to represent the person of Guangoul: a burnt stick and a bad shield were provided; but the great difficulty remained, how to persuade Doho the dwarf to put on the raw guts about his neck and waist, and, above all, to plait them in the hair, which he absolutely refused, both from religious and cleanly motives; as for the butter, it was no objection, as all the Abyssinians anoint themselves with it daily, after bathing. Here we were very near at a stand, all the ladies having in vain supplicated him to suffer for their sakes a temporary pollution, with promises that oceans of rose and scented water should be poured upon him afterwards, to restore his former sweetness. Doho was a man who constantly spent his time in reading scripture, the acts of the councils, the works of St John Chrysostom, and other such books as they have among them. He remained inflexible: at last I suggested that several hanks of cotton, dyed blue, red, and yellow, should be got from the weavers in the Mahometan town, and these oiled, greased, and knotted properly, and twisted among the hair, well-anointed with butter, would give a pretty accurate resemblance of what we saw in the king's tent. All hands were immediately set to work; the cotton was provided; Ozoro Esther's servants and slaves decked Doho to the life. I spotted his face with stibium, and others anointed him with butter: an old milk-cow was found, contrary to my expectation, that suffered a rider without much impatience, and in came Guangoul into a great hall in Ozoro Esther's apartment.
Never was any thing better personated or better received; the whole hall resounded with one cry of laughter; Doho, encouraged by this and the perfect indifference and steadiness of his cow, began to act his part with great humour and confidence: he was born in the neighbourhood of these very Galla, knew their manners, and spoke their language perfectly. Amha Yasous, Confu, Aylo brother to Engedan, some servants of the king, acted the part that we did in the tent the day of the audience, that is, stood on each side of the king's chair: the cow was brought into the middle of the room, and Guangoul descended with his lance and shield in great state; a cushion was not spared, nor did Doho spare the cushion; the butter shewed very distinctly where he had been sitting: we all fell upon him and belaboured him heartily, and chaced him to the door. His speedy retreat was not counterfeited. Ozoro Altash, Esther's sister, and a number of the ladies of the court, were present. Ozoro Esther declared she would send for the Ras, he had been in great good humour since the arrival of Amha Yasous. I had not seen him since the recovery of his son, and happened to be at the door next him; he took me by the hand, and said, "Welleta Hawaryat (that is the name of his son) is well, you are very kind."
Michael was esteemed the best orator in his country, and spoke his own language, Tigran, with the utmost purity and elegance; yet in common conversation he was very sententious, two or three words at a time, but never obscure; this he had contracted by a long practice of commanding armies, where he saw as instantly and clearly, as he spoke shortly and distinctly. He bowed very civilly to the ladies, and pointed to me to sit down on the seat by him. Amha Yasous was standing before him, I hastened to sit down on the carpet at his feet, and he seemed to recollect himself and placed Amha Yasous beside him: it was easy to see his mind was otherwise occupied, and as easy to perceive by his look, that he gave me credit for my behaviour. When they were all seated, "Well, says he, in great good humour, what now, what is the matter? what can I do for you, Yagoube? are the women in your country as idle and foolish as these? has Ozoro Esther chosen a wife for you? she shall give you your dinner: I will give her a portion; and as you are a horseman, the king, with Amha Yasous's leave, said he bowing, shall give you the command of the Shoa horse; I have seen them; the men I think are almost as white as yourself." Amha Yasous bowed in return, and said, "Sir, if the king bestows them so worthily, I promise to bring another thousand as good as these to join them after the rains, before next Epiphany."—"And I, says Ozoro Esther, for my part, I have long had a wife for him, but this is not the present business, we know your time is precious, Guangoul is without, and desires an audience of you."—Poh! says the Ras, Guangoul is gone to Gusho, at Minziro, and there is like to be a pretty story: here are accounts come from Tigrè, that he has committed great barbarities in his journey, laid waste some villages, killed the people, for not furnishing him with provisions: here in Belessen he also burnt a church and a village belonging to the Iteghé, and killed many poor people; I do not know what he means; I hope they will keep him where he is, and not send him home again through Tigrè.
A communication of this kind, very uncommon from the Ras, occasioned a serious appearance in the whole company; but he had no sooner done with speaking, than in comes Doho upon his cow: neither man nor woman that had yet seen him, ever laughed so heartily as the old Ras; he humoured the thing entirely; welcomed Doho in Galla language, and saw the whole farce, finished by his flight to the door, with the utmost good humour. Then taking Amha Yasous with him, and several great officers who had come in the interim, he returned by a private passage to his own apartments.
As I shall have no occasion for further mention of this chieftain, I will here finish his story, though not in the order of time. Gusho and Powussen had gained Guangoul, and persuaded him to make an irruption with his Galla into the province of Tigrè, to create a diversion against Michael, and, for that purpose, they had sent him home nearly the way he had come through that province. From this encouragement he had begun to conduct himself still worse than formerly. Ras Michael, suspecting what would happen, privately dispatched Ayto Confu after him with 600 horse. That young soldier, happy in a command that highly gratified his mother, and guided by the cries of the people, followed with the utmost diligence, and came up with him in the neighbourhood of Lasta, and there, after little resistance, Guangoul and his troops were cut to pieces, those that had escaped being all slain by the exasperated peasants. Confu returned to Gondar the night of the fifth day, together with the bloody trophies of his conquest over Guangoul and his Galla.
I have before mentioned that this chief had brought with him a quantity of large horns for the king's service. Some of this sort having been seen in India filled with civet, have given occasion to those travellers who saw them there to say, that the animal producing these large horns was a carnivorous bull of a prodigious size, inhabiting the interior parts of Africa. That no illustration of this kind may be wanting, a copperplate of this curious bull is, I think, in some of the first volumes of the Philosophical Transactions. The origin of the tale is believed to be in Bernier or Thevenot. It may, however, with great certainty, be relied upon, that no such animal exists in Africa, nor probably in the whole creation. The animal furnishing those monstrous horns is a cow or bull, which would be reckoned of a middling size in England; its head and neck are larger and thicker in proportion, but not very remarkably so. I have been told this animal was first brought by the Galla from near the Line, where it rains continually, and the sun is little seen. This extraordinary size of its horns proceeds from a disease that the cattle have in those countries, of which they die, and is probably derived from their pasture and climate.
Whenever the animal shews symptoms of this disorder, he is set apart in the very best and quietest grazing-place, and never driven nor molested from that moment. His value lies then in his horns, for his body becomes emaciated and lank in proportion as the horns grow large. At the last period of his life the weight of his head is so great that he is unable to lift it up, or at least for any space of time. The joints of his neck become callous at last, so that it is not any longer in his power to lift his head. In this situation he dies, with scarcely flesh covering his bones, and it is then the horns are of the greatest size and value. I have seen horns that would contain as much as a common-sized iron-hooped water-pale, such as they make use of in the houses in England; but the Galla, who have a ready market for these of all sizes, generally kill the beast when his horns will contain something less than six gallons. Two of these horns, filled with wine or spirits, are carried very commodiously upon a woman's back, flung over her shoulders. I had two of the largest size stole from me that night Socinios, Confu, and Chremation plundered my house, nor could I ever recover them. I have seen them at Gondar sold for four ounces of gold, equal to ten pounds sterling, the pair.
On the 17th of February came messengers from Fasil, with the old language of proposals of submission and peace, and a repetition of his demand, that Welleta Selassé should be given him for a wife, and sent to him, at least as far as Dingleber, where he would advance to meet her; excusing himself from coming to Gondar, because the Ras had already broken his promise to him; for the condition of peace made with the Ras, when he was besieging the mountain, was, That if Michael should bring the king to the Tacazzé, and surrender him there, and then return and content himself with the government of Tigrè, without proceeding to Gondar, that Fasil should receive the king and conduct him to the capital, and be created Ras and governor in place of Michael. Fasil had punctually performed his part, and of this Michael had taken advantage, and had violated every article which he had stipulated on the other side; and this was at least the alledged reason why Fasil had refused to come to Gondar. The same evening arrived also messengers from Gusho and Powussen, declaring to Ras Michael, that, if he did not leave Gondar and return to Tigrè, they would come and burn the town. They professed great duty to the king, but charged the Ras with every sort of enormity, and upon his refusal sent him a defiance.
The same evening came an express from Shoa, which most punctually brought the book I so much wished for, containing the lives of the first kings that lived at Shoa; a fair and fine copy, wrote upon parchment in a large quarto size, in the pure ancient language of Geez. The author was nearly contemporary with the annals which he writes. I shewed it to the king, who till then had never seen it, and who only said, I fear, Yagoube, you are carrying home these books only to make your kings laugh at ours. The satisfaction I received upon the acquisition of this book was greatly diminished by the loss of the donor, Amha Yasous, who set out the 20th of February, attended with about a hundred men, his own servants, and followed by the regret and the good wishes of all that had known him, mine in particular, having been, from the first time I saw him, very much attached to him.
Before his departure he had two long conferences with the king upon the contents of the dispatches sent by his father from Shoa. The substance he frankly told me was, that he did not intend to meddle with the quarrels of Ras Michael, nor those of Fasil; that they should settle these in their own way; but if either attempted any thing against the king, set up any usurpers, as they had done in the person of Socinios, and continued so far against their allegiance to Tecla Haimanout as to withhold his whole revenue, and not to pay him wherewithal to support his state, that he would consider himself as protector of the royal family of Solomon, as the governors of Shoa had always been.—It was believed very generally, by Amha Yasous coming in person, that a treaty between some of the great men in both sides, begun at his instance, would bring every man that could mount a horse from as far south as Gingiro, to over-run both the provinces of Begemder and Amhara, and either displace the two governors, or at least force them to their duty; and it was owing to this, in all probability, that Gusho acted with such moderation as he did in the campaign that soon followed.