accordingly accepted the invitation. As it is to be presumed that they had
no intention of taking any personal part in this marauding expedition, we
are not disposed to criticise their acquiescence; otherwise there could be
no doubt whatever, that they had no right to assist the king of Shoa in
his foray on his neighbours, more than they would have had a right to
assist his neighbours in their attacks upon the king of Shoa.

The march was peculiar, and even pompous, in its kind. It was
extraordinary to see it preceded by a copy of the Holy Scriptures, under a
canopy of scarlet cloth, and borne on a mule; but, it must be owned,
accompanied by the "Ark of the cathedral of St Michael," which works
miracles, and is regarded as a pledge of victory. Then came the king on a
specially caparisoned mule, surrounded by his guard of shield-bearers, and
flanked by matchlock-men; then came forty damsels, royal cooks, painted
with ochre, and muffled in crimson-striped robes of cotton--a troop
rigorously guarded by attendants with long white wands. Beyond these, as
far as the eye could penetrate the clouds of dust, every hill and valley
teemed with horsemen, camp-followers, sumpter-mules, and men carrying
sheaves of spears, and leading caparisoned horses, all mixed in the most
picturesque confusion. After a march of fifteen miles, the female cooks
halted, like a flight of flamingoes, in a pretty, secluded valley. It was
evident that the day's march was now at an end, and the army halted to
bivouac for the night. In the centre of this straggling camp, which could
not be less than five miles in diameter, was raised a suite of royal tents,
consisting of a gay party-coloured marquee of Turkish manufacture,
surrounded by twelve ample awnings of black serge, over which floated five
crimson pennons, surmounted respectively by silver globes. There was
something of African, or perhaps European, pomp in this proceeding. Until
the royal tents were enclosed from the vulgar eye, the Negoos, ascending
an adjacent eminence with his chiefs and an escort of picked warriors,