( 252 )
CHAPTER VIII.
Character of the Ras—Short sketch of his Life—Mode of spending our time at Chelicut—Some account of Kasimaj Yasous, and his sister Ozoro Mantwab—Recollections respecting Mr. Bruce in Abyssinia, by a learned man named Dofter Esther—General remarks respecting that traveller—Journey to the Tacazze—Some account of Chelika Negusta—Antálo—Cali—Agora—Character of Guebra Mehedin—Province of Avergale—Description of the Agows—Views of the mountains of Samen—Wild plains abounding in game—River Arequa—Change of climate and scenery as the party continues to descend—Arrival at the Tacazze—Shooting of the hippopotamus—Extraordinary dread of the Crocodile entertained by the Abyssinians—Return to Chelicut—Visit from the Ras—Conference held with him—Removal to Antálo—Abyssinian horsemanship—Conclusion of Lent—Feast on the following day—Amusements of the Abyssinians—Short account of the Shangalla—Parting from the Ras, on our return to Chelicut.
FROM the preceding narrative of affairs it will appear, that, on my former journey[1] I had entertained an erroneous opinion respecting the character of the Ras; as, at that time, I conceived that he owed his elevation more "to his cunning than to his strength of character." In this I was undoubtedly mistaken; since he is distinguished still more for his intrepidity and firmness than by the policy with which he has uniformly ruled the country under his command; having been successfully engaged in upwards of forty battles, and having evinced on these occasions even too great a disregard of his own personal safety in action.
At the time of Mr. Bruce's arrival in the country, in 1770, Ras Welled Selassé was a young man of some consequence about the court;[2] so that, considering him at that time to have been three or four and twenty, his age must, at the period of my last visit to the country, have amounted to about sixty-four; a point somewhat difficult of proof from the extreme delicacy which existed of making any inquiries of this description among his followers. The first situation he held of any import-
