and Ludolf's dictionaries were lying upon it. Yasine was sitting by me, and was telling me what news he had picked up, and he was well acquainted with Ayto Aylo, from several commissions he had received for his merchants in Arabia. A contention of civilities immediately followed. I offered to stand till Aylo was covered, and he would not sit till I was seated. This being got over, the first curiosity was, What my books were? and he was very much astonished at seeing one of them was Abyssinian, and the European helps that I had towards understanding it. He understood Tigrè and Amharic perfectly, and had a little knowledge of Arabic, that is, he understood it when spoken, for he could neither read nor write it, and spoke it very ill, being at a loss for words.
The beginning of our discourse was in Arabic, and embarrassed enough, but we had plenty of interpreters in all languages. The first bashfulness being removed on both sides, our conversation began in Tigré, now, lately since Michael had become Ras, the language most used in Gondar. Aylo was exceedingly astonished at hearing me speak the language as I did, and said after, "The Greeks are poor creatures; Peter does not speak Tigré so well as this man." Then, very frequently, to Saleh and the by-standers, "Come, come, he'll do, if he can speak; there is no fear of him, he'll make his way."
He told us that Welled Hawaryat had come from the camp ill of a fever, and that they were afraid it was the small pox: that Janni had informed them I had saved many young people's lives at Adowa, by a new manner of treating them; and that the Iteghé desired I would come thenext
