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women suckling babies – sat on the dusty ground behind small piles of eggs, grain or unfamiliar herbs. All these highlanders wear rags and look filthy beyond description – which is hardly surprising, with water so scarce.
    We found that dulas (heavy sticks) are not marketed here, since people prefer to cut and prepare their own weapons, so I looked for a substitute at several of the poky Arab huckster-stalls that line the narrower streets. My enquiries had to be made in sign language and, remembering the highlanders’ predilection for hitting each other over the head, I used this gesture – with the result that I soon became a popular turn. A delighted crowd followed me up the street, all perfectly understanding what I meant but none willing to part with his beloved dula . Then an Arab trader offered his own light stick for fifty cents (one and fivepence) and I gladly accepted it – against the advice of my Tigrean followers, who despise light sticks.
    After lunch Jock and I went for a stroll around the ‘estate’, which is delightfully unpretentious. Broken-down farm machinery and the displaced statues of stone lions litter the forecourt, a chihuahua bitch complacently suckles three almost invisible pups in a cardboard box on the bungalow verandah and donkeys and mules graze on nothing in particular inside the imposing arched gateway – while the Prince’s standard flutters importantly above them.
    For centuries Ethiopia’s emperors and nobles lived nomad lives, their courts elaborate camps set up at various points throughout troubled domains, and here one realises that two generations of ‘settledness’ have not counteracted the effects of this wandering tradition, which bred indifference to comfort and beauty. The Ras Mangasha who succeeded Yohannes IV stabled his riding horses within his palace to mark the esteem in which they were held – a natural gesture, for someone reared in a robust society immemorially centred on good horses and good horsemanship. Many Ethiopian emperors and chieftains were intelligent men, but they devoted their skills and energies to intriguing, hunting, repelling invasions or warring with neighbouring chieftains; and when the Imperial Court did settle in Gondar it soon became degenerate.
    At teatime I went indoors, and soon several servants appeared at the french windows, holding up sundry bits of terrifyingly complicated pack-mule equipment. Leilt Aida asked my opinion of these items, but I hastily confessed that I’d never seen the like in my life before and couldn’t possibly pronounceon their quality or suitability. The palace staff are taking this matter of Jock’s equipment very seriously and soon we heard them arguing vehemently about the relative reliability and convenience of various bridles, bits, pack-saddles and ropes. Finally it was decided that a servant, Gabre, should accompany me to a saddler in the bazaar to advise me on the purchase of a bit and bridle.
    Because today is one of Ethiopia’s many important religious feasts the saddler’s shop was shut, so Gabre led me on to the man’s home, through alleyways where mounting-blocks stood outside most of the sturdy little stone houses. (Compared with other highlanders the Tigreans are noted for their solid buildings.) In the saddler’s compound some forty men and women were being entertained to talla and dabo (substantial wheaten bread) and I was taken to a small room, where much saddlery hung on the mud walls and women were baking on a fire in the centre of the earthen floor. The general reaction to this unprecedented intrusion of a faranj was interesting. I sensed a mixture of curiosity, amusement, shyness and suspicion; and, despite the status of my escort, I was given no special treatment – as one inevitably would be by Asians in similar circumstances. A minor Ethiopian official would have been received with much more ceremony, and one could see that the Princess’ servant was regarded as a person of far