The day after the battle, messengers arrived from Gusho and Powussen, offering allegiance to King Tecla Haimanout, on condition that Ras Michael should be sent, never to return, to his government of Tigré; but fear or gratitude induced the king to refuse their demands.
On the 19th of May, intelligence was received that the whole rebel host was again in motion. The king's army instantly descended into the valley, and the troops were ready, with lighted matches in their hands, when a most violent storm of thunder, lightning, and rain ensued.
The army, therefore, fell back, and, the storm subsiding, the evening was passed in pleasure and festivity.
All the young nobility were, as usual, at Ozoro Esther's. "It was with infinite pity," says Bruce, "I heard them thoughtlessly praying for a warm and fair day to-morrow, the evening of which many of them were never to see."
The next morning the troops returned to the plain and took up their old position. In about half an hour the enemy's army was in motion. The ras first perceived it, and immediately ordered the drums to be beat and the trumpets to be sounded. The army advanced, covered with dust from the excessive dryness of the ground.
"In the middle of this great cloud," says Bruce, "we began to perceive, indistinctly, part of the horsemen, then a much greater number, and the figure of the horses more accurately defined, which came moving majestically upon us, sometimes partially seen, at other times concealed by being wrapped up in clouds and darkness; the whole made a most extraordinary, but truly picturesque appearance."
The whole of Powussen's army now appeared; they advanced, riding forward and backward with great violence, and appeared to be diverting themselves rather than attacking their enemy.
After a most desperate battle, the king's troops fell back under the hill of Serbraxos; but on the right the rebel forces were obliged to retire. Near three thousand men perished on the king's side, and among them nearly one hundred and eighty young men of the best families in the kingdom. The enemy's loss amounted to about nine thousand.
The king now received the compliments of his troops, and a most barbarous ceremony, which is still customary in Abyssinia, ensued. Each man who had killed an enemy appeared with a certain part of the man he had slain hanging upon the wrist of his right hand, and, after making a speech, in which he extolled himself as the greatest of heroes, he threw down his barbarous trophy before his chief.
The account which Bruce gave of this ceremony was disbelieved; the reason, as usual, being, that it was a savage custom which had not been described before; but Pearce, the English sailor, left in Abyssinia by Lord Valentia, confirms it. He says, in his letter published by the Literary Society of Bombay in 1817, "I saw and counted eighteen hundred and sixty-five of these inhuman trophies brought before the ras after not more than seven hours' fight."