To see them
waddling along, ready to burst with self-conceit; whilst we knew
that the clothes they were clad with, and the food they had partaken
of that day, were all purchased with British money, was very annoying.
As they accepted bribes the least they could do was to be civil;
on the contrary, they looked down upon us as if we were semi-idiots,
or a species between them and monkeys,--"white donkeys," as they
called us when they spoke of us among themselves. Preceded by Samuel,
they would make straight for Mr. Rassam's house; they were hardly
swore civil to him than to us, though they always swore to him
eternal friendship. I often admired Mr. Rassam's' patience on these
occasions: he could sit, talk, and laugh with them for hours, gorging
them with bumpers of tej until they reeled out of his place, the
laughing-stocks, yet envied objects, of the soldiers who helped
them to regain their homes. On the whole they were a vile set: to
please their master they would have shuddered at no crime, and
stopped at no infamy. When they thought that any cruel act of theirs
might please Theodore, their god, no consideration of friendship
or family ties would arrest their hands or soften their hearts.
They came to Mr. Rassam, though he was kind to them, out of no
regard, only because it was part of their instructions, and they
could indulge their appetite for spirituous drinks; but had we been,
by want of money, reduced to appeal to them, I doubt whether they
would have sanctioned for us, to whom they owed so much, even the
small pittance daily doled out to the poor Abyssinian prisoners.
Pages:
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255