Staying at Allulee.—Amusements.—More camels join our Kafilah.—Introduced
to a new-comer, Ohmed Medina.—Journey to Gurguddee, time marching one
hour and a-half, direction S. W.—Halt for the night.—Murder of a
slave.—March to Khrabtu, time occupied, seven hours.—General
direction, south.—Proceed to Saggadarah, time marching three
hours.—General direction, south-west.
AS I had not seen my mule for some days, on the fourth morning of my
stay at Allulee, I sent Allee to bring her up to my quarters; I found
that she was bleeding profusely at the mouth, and on examination,
discovered five or six large leeches adhering to the under surface of
the tongue. It was a job to detach them, so difficult was it to retain
the slimy, blood-distended monsters in the grasp, and so tenaciously
they clung to their prey. Allee pulled, Zaido tried, and then Ebin Izaak
affirmed he knew how to effect their removal, but still the leeches were
of a different opinion, and held on proof against all efforts to
dislodge them, until I brought to bear the results of my professional
education, and by the secret application of a little salt, overcame all
objection, and the leeches dropt out one after the other, as if
mesmerized by my touch. My Dankalli friends stared, as well they might,
at this striking illustration of knowledge being power, especially as
the _modus operandi_ was a mystery they could not fathom, and they took
themselves and the mule off, with an idea that I must be a mighty
magician, like Moses of old, and that my knowledge must indeed be, as
they expressed it, “as extensive as the sea.”
I experienced a little surprise myself in the evening of the same day,
when the camels were brought into camp for the night. These animals are
driven out every day, in charge of one or two individuals, to browse,
principally on the green leaves and large clusters of curling pods of
the mimosa-trees, which abound in this neighbourhood. A little before
sunset, their owners and the slaves proceed in all directions to bring
them in, and although sometimes a circuit of at least eighteen miles has
been cleared of what little vegetation it boasts of, yet it is very
seldom a camel is ever lost, unless actually driven away by some robber
lurking on the outskirts of their feeding-ground. On this evening, two
or three men drove the numerous herds of camels before them, and came
into camp on one side of a low hill, whilst on the other the remainder
of the men who had assisted in collecting them came in a body, exactly
like the Muditu the preceding day. At a short distance before them,
pirouetting in a succession of bounding leaps, his body bent towards the
ground, whilst the knees were being continually brought up nearly to his
chin, the man whom I had seen punished the day before for being drunk
led them on. All chanted a low, moaning song, and came pressing hard
against each other’s shoulders, with their shields advanced, presenting
a very compact front. Having reached the camp, and paraded past my hut
in this manner, their song ceased, the capering buffoon suspended his
dance, and the party dispersed to assist in securing the camels for the
night, and whose number had been greatly increased by arrivals during
the day.
In the course of the last night, we remained at Allulee, twenty-eight
more camels joined us with salt, and nearly as many men; for besides the
drivers, two extensive slave merchants, had hurried from Tajourah after
us with five or six attendants and a mule. The principal of this party,
Ohmed Medina, was a fine tall athletic man, about forty years of age,
with a mild and very pleasing expression of countenance. He was
considered to be the richest slave merchant of the southern Dankalli
tribes; and, in the opinion of his countrymen, with whom he was a great
favourite, was, besides, a very courageous and successful warrior.
Instead of assuming the poor garb, and pretending great poverty, as did
Ohmed Mahomed, and the other chief people of the Kafilah, he affected a
very superior style of dress, wore an Indian finely wove check fotah, a
very large tobe, and a splendid dagger, the sheath of which was more
than one half of it overlaid with thin plates of silver. He evidently
cared very little for the reported character of the Bedouins, as
regarded their rapacity, and felt quite equal to a contest with them on
any disputed question that might arise. He attended very strictly to his
religious duties, but was far from being a bigot, excepting in always
expecting the coffee to be first handed to him on occasions of drinking
it with me, and as I was indebted to his presence for that real
enjoyment of travelling, which can only arise from a consciousness of
security, I was very willing to make even greater concessions, than in
this simple act, to secure his friendship and good will. As with him no
treachery could be suspected, I have frequently, without any other
companion, traversed for hours the sandy plains, or stone-covered
flat-topped ridges that constitute almost the whole country between
Tajourah and the Hawash. He was particularly quick in comprehending my
ideas, clothed as they were in very bad Arabic, and as we soon got
accustomed to a short vocabulary of the most useful words, and resorted
to familiar comparisons, when we wished to convey abstruse ideas, we
talked away for hours together; he amusing me by the simplicity of
several of his remarks respecting European politics and customs; and I
giving him long accounts of our wars, our commerce, and our religion.
His extensive knowledge of the whole country of Adal and of Abyssinia, I
found very useful, and he was ever ready to give me accounts of the
places he knew, of the roads, of the halting-grounds, and of the trade.
He would sometimes dwell with considerable interest upon the great
wealth that formerly characterized the commerce of Abyssinia, and
indulged in hopes that he should live to see it restored again, now that
the English had come into the country. He admitted that the Dankalli
tribes themselves, by their violence had depopulated and destroyed the
once extensive and powerful kingdom of Adal.
Ohmed Medina had visited Bombay and Aden, and had the most exalted ideas
of our wealth, and the political power of England; he often declared his
admiration of our laws and customs, and said that he should come and
live in one of our “belladee” or towns, and become an Islam Feringee.
Garahmee saw that his supremacy in the Kafilah was now impossible, and
with his usual tact, sunk into an obsequious follower, where he could
not dictate as an arrogant chief. For my own part, I now felt easy, and
secure from the fate which I felt convinced I should have met with had
not Ohmed Medina joined our Kafilah; as it was, had I been travelling in
a well-ordered country, my personal safety could not have been better
assured, and many a pleasant hour’s sleep have I enjoyed after a long
day’s journey, confident in his watchful care, for he always ordered his
servants to build his shade of mats, and salt-bags, but a few yards from
the entrance of my own hut.
I was first introduced to Ohmed Medina, during the march on the morning
of the tenth of April, when we again resumed our journey. We travelled
not more than three miles from our last halting-place, amongst little
denuded hills of a reddish porphyritic stone before we came to an open
plain of no very great dimensions. Passing out of the gorge of a small
stream running through banks which were covered with tamarisks, and
mimosa shrubs; we came suddenly upon a large shallow lake of fresh
water, which prevented us from continuing the march for that day. We
accordingly returned to the little wood-enbosomed plain called
Gurguddee, and which appeared to be a favourite burial-place for the
tribes in the neighbourhood. Among a vast number of others, two large
kairns, or heaps of stones, were pointed out to me, as being the tombs
of two great chiefs, one of which, however, appeared to command no
respect; or, in fact, only excited a contrary feeling, several stones
being cast upon it in contempt. A legend connected with it, reminded me
forcibly of the tale of Myrrha and her father. The other was the tomb of
a Sheik, celebrated for his piety, and was strewed over by palm
branches, and the decayed foliage of other trees. Many of the Kafilah
men, amongst whom I noticed Ohmed Medina, added each a tribute of green
leaves, and repeated a short prayer near to it.
A Kafilah of donkeys laden with salt, going to Owssa, came up with us
this day, and although the marshy lake before us seemed to lie direct in
their way, they would not halt, but taking a long circuit around its
border, went on their way, thus avoided any chance of collision with any
individuals of our party, which appears is always to be expected on
occasions of two Kafilahs coming together, and the greatest caution
marks the conduct of people who thus happen to meet. This cautious
suspicion of intention is also the sole cause of the great politeness,
which, it cannot help being observed, marks all their intercourse with
each other. One of the last traits I should have expected to find
amongst a people so lawless, and otherwise so savage in their manners
and customs.
We rested here the whole day. Zaido having been sent back to the last
halting-place, on some errand, by Ohmed Mahomed, returned in a very
short time running at the top of his speed, without spear or shield, and
panting with excitement and fear, as he came in. All our people turned
out from under the trees with their usual impetuous rush to seize spears
and shields. Ohmed Medina, Garahmee, and some few others, as they got
armed, went with me in the direction of the pursuing party who came in
sight on a distant height, but on seeing our approach they retreated
very quickly behind the hill again. After a short search, we returned
into camp, without the arms thrown away by Zaido in his flight, and
which we could not find. When quiet had been again established, and I
was sitting in my hut, I could not help laughing at Zaido’s grimaces, as
he endeavoured to tell me the jeopardy he had been in, concluding his
relation with a pathetic appeal to my feelings, wishing to know what
indeed the “Ahkeem” (myself) would have done had he been killed, and
trusting that I would supply him with a new shield and spear, in return
for his great attention and care of me.
This accident was the topic of conversation all day, and in consequence
of it a great zekar was held in the evening, similar to those I had seen
performed in Tajourah, and which was kept up until the middle of the
night. All their praying, however, had no effect in withholding the arm
of the assassin, for that very night, shortly after all parties had
retired to their mats, the devotees sleeping perhaps more soundly from
their exertions, the whole camp were suddenly awakened by a loud shriek,
followed by a sudden burst of clamouring voices, and a confused rush to
arms, during which several stumbled over my hut in their hurry. Ohmed
Medina was shouting, “Ahkeem, ahkeem.” Zaido was pushing to get into my
hut as I was trying to get out, and if his voice had not told me who it
was that was thus intruding, it would have been rather a dangerous
retreat for him. I got out at last, and made the best of my way, for it
was a very dark night, in the direction that the voices seemed to be,
and I soon met Ohmed Mahomed, who took me to the place of slaughter; but
I was of no service, the man was quite dead, and no art of mine could
close again the deep gash in his throat, that had terminated so suddenly
his existence. He was the slave of one of the camel-owners, and it was
supposed had been murdered by one of the Muditu, who had crept
unobserved among the camels, and had thus revenged the recent murder of
one of their tribe that had occurred in Tajourah.
_April 11th._—The catastrophe of last night, and the evident hostility
of the tribe we were among, induced Ohmed Mahomed, despite the bad state
of the road, to hasten on another day’s journey to reach a country
inhabited by the Debenee tribe, the chief of whom, Lohitu, a brave and
generous warrior, was a great friend of Ohmed Medina.
It was a very long march of nearly seven hours, for we had to go round
the shallow, muddy, but extensive Lake of Gurguddee, which occupied a
portion of a vast plain, lying nearly north and south, as far as the eye
could reach either way. It was bounded east and west, by long low ridges
of loose lava cinders, at the distance of about five miles from each
other. In a direction nearly due north-west, I was shown the high hills
across which I was told one road to Owssa passed.
Having doubled the southern extremity of the lake, or marsh, more
properly speaking, we passed across a level plain of the finest marl, in
which scarcely a stone the size of a pea could be seen, and traversed in
every direction by little narrow cracks, which told of the very recent
evaporation of a still greater extent of water than that which had
presented an obstacle to our direct progress. Upon this plain I saw for
the first time those vast herds of antelopes, which I had all along
looked forward to, as likely to afford me the exciting sport that has
recently tempted so many adventurous Nimrods to follow up “war’s dim
image” in the wilds of Southern Africa. In one herd I saw on the plain
of Gurguddee, there were at least from four to five hundred antelopes;
but they were so alarmed at the appearance and noise of the camels and
people, that it was impossible to get within shot of them, so after two
or three unsuccessful attempts, I resolved to husband my powers for the
fatigues of the long walk that Ohmed Medina was anxious I should
understand lay before me.
We were seven hours reaching our halting-place, the latter two hours of
the march, having been along the shady bottom of the dry bed of a stream
that sometimes flowed into the plain we had just crossed. Here were some
large mimosa-trees, under the shade of which I was glad to sit and rest
myself, towards the latter end of the journey, and await the coming up
of the camels, which the pedestrian party I was with had left far
behind. Whilst sitting here, one of the Hy Soumaulee brought me as a
refreshment, a handful of the young green pods of one species of the
mimosa-tree, which tasted not unlike the shell of the common pea, and
after a long abstinence from fresh vegetable food, I enjoyed this
singular kind of salad very well.
Six fine antelopes, part of a large herd that was browsing among the
bushes now approached within fifty yards of us, and as soon as I
observed them, without saying a word, or scarcely stirring from my
position, I took up my carbine, and fired at one as she had just put her
feet against the trunk of a low tree to reach, like a goat, the leaves
and tender extremities of the branches. She fell, of course, for the
ball had broken her backbone; and Adam Burrah springing up, rushed like
a hound upon her, and cut her throat in the most orthodox manner, with
his dagger, as he repeated the usual grace after the scrupulously pious
Garahmee, who had also run to his assistance.
My mule coming up with the camels, the dead game was lashed across the
saddle, after due examination by my Dankalli friends of the effect of
gunshot, as exhibited in the wound, and who shook their heads with
sundry emphatic grunts, as if the idea kept recurring to their minds of
the possibility of a like thing occurring to them, at the same time
balancing the open hand horizontally, giving the outer edges of it an
undulatory movement, a mode of expressing surprise, very common among
this people.
Khrabtu, the name of the place where we halted, was an open space, where
three dry watercourses met, surrounded by high crumbling cliffs of a
dark-coloured lava rock. A little pool of dirty water, at some distance
from the camp, was the only representative of the streams which, during
the rains, flow through this ravine into the plain we had just crossed.
Around us were large mimosa trees, the lower branches of which were hung
with the decaying and rotten remains of the uprooted palm and other
trees and shrubs which had been brought down, and thus entangled, by the
floods of the previous year. In what I should presume, during the time
of the inundations, were small islands, young doom palms made a thick
jungle with their large, strong foliage, and after the camels were
unloaded, it appeared a great object with the drivers to collect large
bundles of the green leaves, and during the rest of the day all were
occupied in removing the strong midrib of each long lobe, the strips
being preserved, as the material with which they sewed up the holes and
worn-out corners of the salt-bags, that were beginning to be somewhat
the worse for the journey. The Hy Soumaulee, who had no mats, or
palm-leaf bags to repair, devoted themselves to the much more agreeable
employment of skinning the antelope and preparing it for the
cooking-pot, but not without indulging in some portion of the meat raw.
Adam Burrah, for his share, took the bones of the back, and was now busy
endeavouring to separate them by bending the whole with both hands
against the upright sole of his foot, as, sitting upon the ground, he
almost laid himself upon his back, by the force of his exertions,
turning and twisting the many-jointed bones about, in a peculiarly
determined manner, to have it broken into as many portions as he could.
Allee and Moosa divided the raw kidneys between them, which they eat up
on the spot, whilst Garahmee, in possession of a very great delicacy,
sucked the almost liquid marrow from the shank bones; for this purpose
having smashed them, one after the other, between two large stones.
In a short time Zaido brought his large wooden bowl, in which were heavy
lumps of flesh, very hot, and but half boiled. On his approach, all
hands forgot their employments to pounce upon the cooked meat, and I saw
that if I did not make a push there was little chance of my getting any;
so forcing myself between the scrambling parties, I seized hold of the
first portion I could put my hand on and bore away the greater part of
the haunch, and upon this, occasionally daubing my tongue with a piece
of dirty rough salt I always carried in my ammunition-bag, I managed to
make as hearty and as savage a meal as any of the rest. I could not help
noticing the attention paid to new comers who were too late for the
scramble at the contents of the bowl. Some of their more successful
companions, would strip off a piece from the bone with their teeth, and
throw it at them, not at all in the gentle manner that we might have
expected, a kindness like that to have been performed.
Zaido managed to put by one whole leg, and to conceal it, had pushed it
under the mats of the roof of my hut, close to my head; for a joke I
took it down inside, and divided it, without his knowledge, among some
hungry Bedouins, much to his indignant surprise, when he afterwards
discovered his loss, for he unhesitatingly attributed the abstraction of
the meat, to the thievish propensity of his countrymen, an unhappy
failing he on more than one occasion had reason to lament.
Our Kafilah had now assumed the character of one united family, no
divisions, no continual calahms, that had characterized our progress
before the arrival of Ohmed Medina, who took his place as
Comptroller-General, and all of us submitted without a murmur to his
command. As for myself, I felt perfectly easy, for the same deference
the rest of the Kafilah paid to Ohmed Medina, was reflected upon me by
the respect and attention which he always showed, and which had a
corresponding effect upon all the rest. This night particularly, I
noticed the great change in the bearing of my Hy Soumaulee escort
towards me, who, instead of coming with a stealthy sneaking pace, as
they had frequently done before, to observe what arrangements of defence
I had made for the night, now came boldly, but very civilly, one after
the other, to the entrance of my retreat, and “negasseed” me almost to
sleep. The usual salutation of the evening being a long repetition of
the word “_negassee_,” signifying, I concluded, as much as our “good
night.”
_April 12th._—Left Khrabtu at sunrise, and three hours after, we reached
the halting-place of Saggadarah, situated in the wide bed of a small
stream called Korree. Its banks were composed of low hills of different
coloured, irregularly stratified rock, that if not volcanic, had been
greatly altered from their original character of deposited formations,
by the agency of fire. The whole valley abounded with vegetation;
wide-spreading sweetly-scented mimosas, and clumps of luxuriantly
growing doom palm, made travelling beneath their shade delightfully
agreeable. An immense number of a small kind of dove, with the slightest
tinge of red, scarcely a blush, blended with their usual silvery grey
plumage, kept darting from bush to bush, as we disturbed them anew,
every few yards we advanced, whilst the little antelope of Salt, and a
large kind of partridge, were not unfrequently seen running beneath the
thin underwood. Hanging nests of fresh green grass, were suspended like
immense bell-shaped blossoms, from the upper boughs of the mimosa-trees,
and the evident care of the passing Bedouins to prevent their shouldered
spears from injuring them, told of some innocent superstition, still
keeping alive gentle feelings, amidst all the rudeness of their savage
untutored nurture.
Ohmed Medina, on one occasion, when I was desirous of looking at the
contents of one of these nests, cautiously pulled down by its farthest
extremity a branch to which one was attached, without disturbing the
position of a single blade of its building materials. I then looked
through its little aperture on one side, but found, however, neither
eggs nor young, which was to be accounted for by its recent
construction.
As was generally the case, the watering-place was some little distance
from the spot where we had encamped. Water, certainly, abounded in our
immediate neighbourhood, but it was so impregnated with copper, that it
was known to the Dankalli to be “poison water,” and two or three
instances of its deleterious effects were related to me, and drinking it
was one of the causes to which I heard attributed the death of the
Feringee (Kielmeyer) at Killaloo.
In the black coarse sand of the dry bed of the stream, I found several
specimens of the spiral shell, which I had observed, as characterizing
the stratum of chalk, in the neighbourhood of the Bahr Assal. I
accompanied a party going to the sweet water-place with the camels,
where I bathed, and also picked up several living specimens of another
singular, but very small shell, the mouth of which opened to the left of
its cell. The pool in which I found them was situated at some little
distance from the camp, and among hard close-grained rocks of a reddish
brown colour, very different in external appearance, from those in the
neighbourhood of our encampment, which were of a bright green colour,
containing evidently a considerable per centage of the mineral, with
which the water in their neighbourhood was impregnated.
Either the half-cooked venison of yesterday, or the water in this place
disagreeing with me, all the afternoon of this day I was very ill, and
as I felt no better after bathing, I sent for Ohmed Medina, to consult
with him how we should manage, if I were too ill to proceed on the
morrow. Adam Burrah, who accompanied him, however, undertook to doctor
me, and, creeping into my hut, with a handful of fresh cow-dung, would
make me hold it under my nose, all the time he was pinching up the whole
of the scalp from the back of the head, beginning very scientifically at
the nape of the neck, and managed, by pressing it forwards, and pinching
it up from all sides, to bring, gradually, a good large fold of it over
my forehead. This he then included in a portion of his tobe, and
applying his teeth to assist him in its compression, I thought he would
not have desisted, until he had bitten the piece out altogether. I
submitted to this operation, because, in the first place, Ohmed Medina
affirmed it to be the best remedy I could possibly have to relieve the
headache, and in the next, I was determined to see some little of the
native practice of physic, and this was too good an opportunity to let
escape. The cow-dung, which was very affectionately broken into small
pieces, agreeably to their ideas of my delicate education, I very soon
dispensed with, assuring them, after a sniff or two, it had had a
wonderfully beneficial effect, and that I had no doubt, after my scalp
was well kneaded again by Adam Burrah, I should be quite recovered. This
was not actually the case; but as I took some of my own medicine, and
omitted my usual supper, by the next morning I was fully restored to
health, and as I gave all credit, and a fee of four buttons, to Adam
Burrah, I established his medical character for ever after, among his
admiring countrymen.
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