The Sun.
London, England, 1868-05-25 00:00:00

161)011E AND NIS wit .

Those who saw him next day, when the Way !Tad been
cleansed from blood, and the face become more composed,
de,elare that his personal appearance was very striking.
The face, though in complexion very dark, had nothing
whatever of the negro about it. The features were finely
cut, thcugh generally far more expressive of power and
strength of will than of delicacy or refinement ; the brow
massive and thoughtful, the lips thin and closely drawn,
indicative of rare determination. His frame was small
and slight, but. well-shaped and firmly knit. It was
strangely shrunken and emaciated, as if the constant
fatigue and anxiety of the last few years, combined with
almost daily dissipation, had told upon it. In his best
days Theodore's whole appearance may have borne
out all that his admirers have said in favour of it;
but the hard life he has latterly led had stamped
upon the face—at least when I saw it—an expres-
sion of grossness and sensuality which greatly im-
paired its otherwise striking effect. However, Mr.
:Laolmes, a first-rate amateur artist, has taken what is de-
cl.red by those who knew Theodore well to be an admir-
able likeness of him, so that all who are curious to know
w:lo,t the famous or infamous Emperor of Abyssinia looked
like- will have an opportunity of gratifying their curiosity
without further description from me. Theodore's body
was placed at the disposal of his widow, or perhaps I
ought to say his principal widow—for there are at least two
royal ladies, and there is no saying how many semi-royal,
who lava quasi-conjugal claim to him. The Oriental fashion,
it seems, holds good in Abyssinia, that any woman upon
whom the Imperial eyes have once looked with favour is
thencefori-h set apart as sacred from the approach of ordi-
nary mortoat ; and as Theodore was constantly on the
march, and hi., affections—at least latterly—shortlived (in
his earlier days he was famous throughout wondering
Abyssinia for hio devotion to one favourite queen), his
harem grew very large. When on the first anxious day
of negotiation Lieutenant Prideaux told him that
honourable treatment would be given to him and his
family if he surrendered himself and Magdala, he broke out
with an odd mixture, for such a moment, of humour and
" What does your chief mean by my family?
Is, he prepared for a thousand?" However, only two
vriJows have been recognised. The widow-in-chief is the
daughter of Ras Oubia, of Tigr6, and therefore belongs to
one of the oldest and most powerful dynasties in Abys-
sinia, *crushed, with so many others, by Theodore, when
he for a time effected the consolidation of the
empire. Those who saw her on the clay of the storming
of Magdala, when her face was exposed, say that she must
in her day have been a very great beauty, cruelly thrown
away upon 1: byssinia, of the thoroughbred type, the
features delicate and well-cut, the hands and feet small
and exquisitely .shaped. . The British soldier did not, of
course, understand that the removal of her veil (the pro-
foundest proof of submission and humiliation that
an Abyssinian lady can give) was anything out of the
way, and his efforts to console her by slapping her
on the back and informing her that nobody should
hurt her, but that " Tgdros was maffish "—an
Arabic word used here to denote anything and
everything not good or to the purpose—were anything but
reassuring, however well meant. Happily, Dr. Blanc came
up in time to rescue her, and she is now safe somewhere in
our camp, closely muffled up and screened from profane
eyes. She did not even affect to feel any grief at her hus-
band's death, and left the British to do what they thought
best with his body, which was placed in the outer porch of
the wretched cabin in Magdala dignified by the name of
church, for as a suicide Theodore could not be o:itis-
tian rites or military honours.