554 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
their own provinces to terrify the reft of their clans by the mangled appearance they then bore ; for this was Ras Mi- chad's intention in disfiguring them, and yet leaving them alive ; to prevent therefore the fuccefs of this fcheme, Fafil put them to death in their way before they reached their own country. I confefs I was ftruck at the fineiTe which completed Waragna Fafil's character in my mind. What, faid I, kill his own people taken prifoners whilft lighting for him, merely becaufe their enemies had cruel- ly deprived them of their fight ! indeed,Woldo, that is not credible. O ho, fays he, but it is true ; your Galla are not like other men, they do not talk about what is cruel and what is not ; they do jufl what is for their own good, what is reafonable, and think no more of the matter. Ras Michael, fays he, would make an excellent Galla ; and do not you believe that he would do any cruel action which my mafter Fafd would not perpetrate on the fame provocation, and to anfwer the fame purpofe ?
It now occurred to me why the three Galla, whom I had ^maintained at Gondar, had constantly refufed to return in- to their own country with the many fafe opportunities which at times had prefented to them, efpecially fince the king's retreat to Tigre ; neither had I obferved any de- fire in Fafd's fervants, who occasionally came to Gondar, of helping to reftore thefe unfortunate men to their coun- try, becaufe they knew the fate that awaited them.
Although the Lamb, and the other Galla his foldiers, paid very little attention, as I have faid, to us, it was remarkable to ice the refpcct they mewed Fafil's horfe ; the greateil part of them, one by one, gave him handfuls of barley, and
the
