434 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
The cadi then afkcd me, " If I knew when Haguige Ma-i giu;;c was to come ?" Remembering my old learned friend' at Teawa, I fcarce could forbear laughing. " I have no Willi to know any thing about him, faid I ;. I hope thofo- days are far off,, and w-iil not. happen in my time." "Whac do your books fay concerning him ? (fays he, affecting:, a great look of wifdom) Do they agree with ours ?" " I don't' know that, faid I, till I hear what is written in your books." " Hagiuge Magiuge, fays he, are little people,. not fo big, asf bees, or like the zimb, or fly of Sennaar, that come in great fwarms out of the earth, aye, in multitudes that cannot be counted ; two of their chiefs are to ride upon an afs, and eve- ry hair of that afs is to be a pipe, and every pipe is to play a different kind of mufic, and all that hear and follow tliem are carried to hell." " I know them not, faid. I, and, in the name of the Lord, I fear them not, were they twice as little as you fay they are, and twice as numerous. I truft in God I fhall ne\^r be fo fond of mufic as to go to hell after an afs for all the tunes that he or they can play." The king laughed violently.. I rofe to go away, fori was heartily ti- red of the converfation. I whifpered the AbylFmian fervant in Amharic, to alk when I fhould bring a. trifle I had to offer the king. He faid, Not that night, as I fhould be tired, but defired that I fhould now go home, and he would fend me notice when to come. I accordingly went away, and found a number of people in the ftreet,.all having fome taunt or affronting matter to fay. I paffed through the great fquare before the palace, and could not help fliuddering-, upon reflecftion, at what had happened in that fpot to the Unfortunate M. du Roule and his companions, though un«. ■der a protei5lion v/hich fhould have fecured them from all datjgcr, every part of which I was then unprovided with.
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