We had better shelter, and had time to make arrangements for
provision for our followers and ourselves before the rains fairly
commenced, and in that respect were better off than the year before;
but, for other reasons, such as the political condition of the
country, the daily increasing difficulty of communicating with the
coast, it was perhaps, on the whole, more trying and disagreeable.
The chiefs of the mountain had not been long in finding out that
the English captives had money. They all had frequently been
presented with _douceurs_, in the shape of dollars for themselves,
shamas or ornaments for their wives; also tej and arrack, which was
brewed by Samuel under Mr. Rassam's direction, of which they partook
frequently and freely. They tried to cut one another out; each one
in his private visits pretending to be "the best friend;" but they
could not openly leave the council-room, and start off for a glass,
without being accompanied by the whole batch, so they forbade every
one but themselves from visiting us. Poor Zenab for months took no
more lessons in astronomy, and Meshisha played the lute to his wives
and followers. They even went so far as to forbid the petty chiefs
and soldiers coming to me for medicine. But this was too much;
though a despotism, the constitution of the country only acknowledged
one master.
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