A long march across the Sana Robi next brought the troops to Belat, in
the neighbourhood of Yeolo. His Majesty, seated upon his cushioned
_alga_, halted frequently in the wide undulating meadows to witness
warlike rehearsals on a still more splendid scale; on the termination of
which, many of the quotas having received their dismissal, dispersed to
their respective districts, although not until after one Amhara soldier
had been treacherously murdered by a rival comrade, and another had been
desperately wounded in a trifling dispute.
Before sunrise the ensuing morning the victorious troops, reduced by one
third, marched upon Angollala, driving exultingly before them upwards of
thirty thousand head of cattle, the entire of which were, _par
excellence_, the property of the king. Arrived within sight of the
capital, strains of martial music burst from the centre division, when
every throat throughout the vast army joined in one deafening chorus.
Half a mile to the south of the Galla wall a tent had been erected, to
which His Majesty retiring for a few minutes, arrayed himself
preparatory to the triumphal entry; and the various leaders, at the head
of their respective squadrons, meanwhile took up the position allotted
in the coming pageant.
As the state umbrellas, preceded by the ark of Saint Michael, passed
through the Ankober gate of the defences, the assembled chiefs and
warriors who had been most distinguished during the successful foray,
arrayed in the glittering badges of former achievements in arms, placed
themselves in advance. One hundred gore-stained steeds, resplendent
with trappings and brass ornaments, and fancifully caparisoned in gay
cloths and chintz housings, bounded and pranced gallantly under this
chosen band of proud cavaliers, who, with lances couched, and party
coloured robes flaunting in the wind, slowly curvetted over the verdant
carpet of turf. Their glossy black hair, loaded with feathers and green
branches in token of recent triumph, and their variously emblazoned
shields, glancing brightly in the sun-beams, they rent the air with
shrill whoops and yells, responded at frequent intervals by loud shouts
of welcome from the palace, and from all parts of the town; whilst the
dense phalanx of warriors in the rear--their forest of lances partially
obscured under a thick canopy of dust--pressing tumultuously forward,
and pouring the wildest war-songs from ten thousand throats, completed
one of the most brilliant and savage exhibitions that can be conceived.
The king was enrobed in the ample spoils of a noble Hon, richly
ornamented, and half concealing beneath their tawny folds an embroidered
green mantle of Indian manufacture. On his right shoulder he wore three
chains of gold as a symbol of the Holy Trinity, and the fresh-plucked
bough of asparagus, which denoted his recent exploit, rose from the
centre of an embossed coronet of silver. His dappled war-steed,
bedizened with housings of blue and yellow, was led prancing beside him,
and immediately in advance bounded the champion, on a coal-black
charger, bearing the imperial shield of massive silver, with the sacred
emblem of Christianity in high relief, whilst his long plaited raven
locks floated wildly behind, over the spotted hide of a panther, by
which his broad shoulders were graced. Abogaz Maretch and Ayto Berkie
rode on either side of the crimson _debaboch_, and a marshalled line of
shield-bearers, under the Master of the Horse, preserved a clear space
around the royal person until the cavalcade had gained the stockaded
knoll, upon the summit of which the palace is erected.
Here a deputation of priests, clad in snow-white garments, received the
victorious monarch with a blessing, and under a volley of musketry. His
Majesty proceeded to ascend. The outer court was crowded with female
slaves, beggars, and menials, who, on the first appearance of the
umbrellas within the gate, greeted the royal return with the shrillest
clamour, and cast themselves prostrate in the dust. Fusiliers and
matchlock-men of the imperial body-guard lined the second palisaded
enclosure, and under a _feu-de-joie_, their leader, performing the
war-dance before the holy ark, led the procession to the last enclosure,
where the king being met by the eunuchs of the royal household, entered
the palace by a private door, and surrounded by pages and attendants,
presently took seat in a high latticed balcony fronting the inner
quadrangle.
Full in the centre stood a gigantic drum, whereat twelve old hags
thumped unceasingly with crossed hands, keeping time energetically with
their feet, whilst, under the most frightful contortions and
gesticulations, they cursed and screamed defiance to the enemies of the
state. Sixty concubines, their faces besmeared with red ochre and
grease, and their frizzled locks white under a coat of lard, sang and
danced with increasing vehemence their shrill melody, regulated by the
drum, now dwindling into recitative, now bursting forth into a deafening
chorus. Around this strange group, the dismounted cavaliers formed
fifteen deep, and filling the entire court, poised each his trophy of
blood aloft upon the glittering point of his lance; and as the whole
danced, and whooped, and howled like wild beasts, warrior after warrior,
springing with a fiendish yell into the centre of the ring, cast his
prize contemptuously upon the ground, and kissing the dust, did abject
homage at the feet of the triumphant despot.
"Behold in me the king's great warrior," now resounded from every
quarter. "I it was who slew his enemy in the open field, or speared him
in the burning hut. May victory ever attend his armies in the battle!
May Sahela Selassie reign for ever!" A general shout and clashing of
shields, with the sudden cessation of the wild music, announced the
close of this savage pageant. The curtain dropped before the monarch,
and, as the actors dispersed rapidly to the right and to the left, the
discharge of an old dismounted iron gun, which, vertically elevated
against a stone, was revealed at the further extremity of the court,
announced to the public that the tragedy of "the Royal Robber" had been
performed with the most brilliant success, and would be repeated again
during the season.
Rumours of the destruction of the entire Christian host had flown to
Angollala in consequence of the Negoos having, for the first time in his
life, passed the night apart from his baggage; and the grief and
consternation which prevailed during six days, had only been dispelled
by the unexpected and triumphant return of the victorious army. Evil
omens had, indeed, resounded through the departing camp, but destiny had
been satisfied with a youthful scion of the royal stock; and although
the weapons of a lost descendant of the house of Solomon adorned the
rude walls of the pagan Galla, still fire and sword had ravaged their
fair country; and the rich booty with which the adjacent meadows were
profusely dotted, proclaimed a harvest which, during thirty years, and
eighty-four successive expeditions, had not been eclipsed in the annals
of Amhara bloodshed and rapine.
Volume Two, Chapter XXVII.