The crown is made in the shape of a priest's mitre, or head-piece; it is a kind of helmet, covering the king's forehead, cheeks, and neck. It is lined with blue taffety; the outside is half gold and half silver, of the most beautiful filligrane work.
The crown, in Joas's time, was burnt, with part of the palace, on that day when Ras Michael's dwarf was shot in his own house before him. The present was since made by the Greeks from Smyrna, who have large appointments here, and work with very great taste and elegance, though they have not near so much encouragement as formerly.
Upon the top of the crown was a ball of red glass, or chrystal, with several bells of different colours within it. It seems to me to have formerly been no better than part of the stopper of a glass-decanter. Be that as it may, it was lost in Yasous's time at the defeat of Sennaar, It was found, however, by a Mahometan, and brought by Guangoul, chief of the Bertuma Galla, to the frontiers of Tigrè, where Michael, governor of that province, went with an army in great ceremony to receive it, and, returning with it, gave it to king Yasous, making thereby a great advance towards the king's favour.
Some people[1], among the other unwarranted things they have advanced, have said, That, at the king's coronation, a gold ear-ring is put into his cars, and a drawn sword into his hand, and that all the people fall down and worshiphim;
- ↑ Vid. Le Grande's Hist. of Abyssinia.
