A Narrative Of Captivity In Abyssinia With Some Account Of The Late Emperor Theodore, His Country And People By Henry Blanc
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I Attended Him Carefully, And He Always Felt Grateful
For My Attentions Towards Him.
When we separated and lived in
different houses, he did not allow the guards to sleep inside our
hut.
It is true it would have been difficult; but Abyssinian soldiers
are not particular: they sleep anywhere, - on their prisoner's bed,
if there is no other place, making use of him as a pillow. Of course
Mr. Rassam had none; but he was the great man, the dispenser of
favours. Stern, Cameron, and Rosenthal, being neither rich nor
favourites, had the advantage of the presence of two or three of
those ruffians as their companions every night; nor were those in
the kitchen better off, as some soldiers were always sent in at
night not to watch Kerans and Pietro, but the King's property (our
own kit).
Samuel soon made friends with some of the chiefs. After a while,
two of them were constantly in our inclosure, and, under the pretext
of coming to see Samuel, would spend hours with us. Kerans, a good
Amharic scholar, was the interpreter on those occasions: one of
them, Deftera Zenab, the King's chief scribe, (now tutor to Alamayou,)
is an intelligent; honest man; but he was quite mad on astronomy,
and would listen for hours to anything concerning the solar system.
Unfortunately, either the explanations were faulty or his comprehension
dull as each time he came he wanted the whole dissertation over
again until at last our patience was fairly exhausted, and we gave
him up as a bad job.
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