This Matthew, Queen Eleni's ambasssador, is a figure of some mystery. According to one report, he was a Christian merchant from Armenia; according to another, the brother of the Coptic Patriarch of Egypt, and the husband of a kinswoman of Prester John; a third stor had it that he was a recent conver from Islam. Much of this may have been true. ALl that is certain is that he was lighter in color than an Ethiopian, middle-aged, and of distinguished bearing.