was first taken notice of at Gondar, two days before the feast of St Michael, on which day the army takes the field. A fight so uncommon alarmed all sorts of people; and the prophets, who had kept themselves within very moderate bounds during this whole reign, now thought that it was incumbent upon them to distinguish themselves, and be silent no longer. Accordingly they foretold, from this phaenomenon, and published everywhere as a truth infallibly and immutably pre-ordained, that the present campaign was to exhibit a scene of carnage and bloodshed, more terrible and more extensive than any thing that ever had appeared in the annals of Ethiopia. That these torrents of blood, which were everywhere to follow the footsteps of the king, were to be stopped by his death, which was to happen before he ever returned again to Gondar; and, as the object of the king's expedition was still a secret, these alarming presages gained a great deal of credit.
But it was not so with Yasous, who, notwithstanding he was importuned, by learned men of all forts, to put off his departure for some days, absolutely refused, answering always such requests by irony and derision: "Pho! Pho! says he, you are not in the right; we must give the comet fair play; use him well, or he will never appear again, and then idle people and old women will have nothing to amuse themselves with."
He accordingly left Gondar at the time he had appointed; and he was already arrived at Amdaber, a few days distance from the capital, when an express brought him word of his mother's death, on which he immediately marched back to Gondar, and buried her in the island of Mitraha with all
