Journey from Saggadarah.—Reach Bellad Hy, time marching, four hours,
general direction S.S.W.—Halt for the night.—Journey to Ramudalee,
time marching, seven hours, general direction S.S.W.—Halt at Ramudalee
to receive the visit of Lohitu, chief of the Debenee tribe.
_April 13th._—One hour before sunrise, I and Ohmed Medina, attended by
the Hy Soumaulee, preceded the Kafilah. Adam Burrah being too ill to
accompany us, having, as it was asserted, contracted my illness of the
preceding night by his endeavours to relieve me, I left him my mule to
ride. We continued our journey between low flat-topped ridges of the
same cuprous rock as during yesterday, till we opened upon a little
plain, with green sloping banks on all sides, and evidently the head of
the small stream which, during the rains, ran along the road we had
come, and was called Bahr Saggadarah, or the Saggadarah water. It was
overgrown with large and tall mimosa-trees, and a singular rush-like
tree, with a thick trunk, the drooping leafless branches of which
reminded me very strongly of the emu-tree of New Holland.
From this wooded bottom, or flat, we began to ascend a gentle acclivity
by a narrow road, which soon altered in character, from that along which
we had been travelling for the two hours previously. Numerous stones of
very unequal size had to be stumbled over, and when we had gained the
summit a dreary prospect lay before us; a widely-extended country, or
table-land, covered with large loose blocks, of a black scoreaceous
lava. I took a last fond look of the narrow, but beautiful valley we had
just emerged from, and which I now found was a little green oasis in the
midst of a wilderness of stones. There was no help for it, so with a
long hop, as I recovered myself from a severe blow I gave my foot
against a large stone, when with averted face I was still looking
towards the valley, I commenced following my companions. I soon came up
to them, and found our new position was called Bellad Hy, the country of
Hy, from whence I imagine the Hy Soumaulee derive their name, although
it forms at present no portion of their domains, being part of the
country of the Debenee, who claim all the land from Gurguddee to the
valley of Gobard, a few days’ journey in advance.
I noticed on the plain of Hy, many tombs of the circular kind, like
those I saw of the Soumaulee at Berberah, with the usual entrance to the
south, and the line of the grave in the centre, placed exactly due east
and west. These tombs were so numerous that for the last few days of our
journeying, I had no occasion to refer to my compass to take the
bearings of our progress, as I determined it always by the position of
the graves, which I could do with much greater deliberation and
correctness than by the hasty, stealthy look at a vibrating needle,
agitated by my movements as I walked along. These graves the Dankalli
refer to a period antecedent to their occupation of the country, when
the Kafirs, as they call the previous possessors, had no knowledge of
the Koran, and placed the head of the corpse, when they buried it, in
the direction of the rising sun, and not towards the Kaaba at Mecca. The
fact was, that these graves were those of Sabian Affahs, the common
ancestors both of the Soumaulee and the Dankalli, and who, as the
Avalites of the ancients, occupied the whole of the eastern horn of
Africa. The introduction of the Mahomedan faith has effected the
separation of the two people in modern times, and now many of the
professors of Islamism are ashamed to own their Pagan ancestors.
In about two hours, we passed the deserted village seen by the very
worthy Missionaries, Messieurs Isenberg and Krapf; and I could not
resist laughing in my heart, at the idea suggested by a comparison of
the ruined stone kraals, so designated, that pointed out an occasional
station of the Bedouins, during the rains in this now herbless
wilderness, with the idea suggested by the beautifully told tale,
bearing the same title, and beginning—
“Sweet Auburn! loveliest village of the plain!”
We proceeded with a skating-like step, very fatiguing to the knees, from
stone to stone, for several miles, a few tufts of dry wire-like grass
offering but a poor excuse for vegetation. Snakes, however, found here
sustenance, and a coarse-looking tuberculated lizard, sunned itself upon
the hot black stones, and being nearly of the same colour, its sudden
dart to a hole beneath, only made the traveller aware of its presence.
Deep fissures, not seen until we were close to them, traversed the plain
in directions nearly north-east and south-west, and sometimes long low
ridges of erupted rock, appeared just above the otherwise level surface.
Where we halted were a few stunted mimosa trees, low and dry, scarcely
to be distinguished from the characteristic grass of this district, and
promising but a very scanty repast, to the one hundred and thirty or one
hundred and forty camels belonging to our Kafilah; and worse than this,
not a drop of water was to be found in the neighbourhood. It was, in
fact, another “deserted village,” consisting only of the remains of
little stone enclosures, about three feet in diameter, covered on the
top with bushes, where it is usual, for the Bedouin shepherds, to secure
for the night, the young of their flocks from the depredations of wild
beasts. Here was also a large circular wall, of loose stones, about four
feet high, in which the older herds were kept.
One of these enclosures, we found large enough to form my house for the
day, and my carpet was laid over the open top as a roof, whilst mats
were spread upon the ground. The stores of the Kafilah were piled
around; and at a little distance, in long pyramidal ridges, raised upon
a broad row of stones, the bags of salt were heaped up, something in the
same way that cannon-balls are built into heaps in a battery.
_April 14th._—We left the halting-ground of Hy one hour before sunrise,
and, much to my gratification, suddenly exchanged the rough stony plain
for the dry sandy bed of an occasional wide stream. Here, again, were
abundance of the rush willow as I termed it, though not belonging at all
to the genus salix, and also some mimosa-trees; but I did not observe,
that the doom palm was present, nor did I see this tree again during my
journey. We did not long continue on this level and agreeable road, but
ascended a low acclivity covered with large round volcanic stones,
apparently detached from the heights above. After a short walk of about
half an hour over this jutting headland, as it proved to be, we again
descended into the bed of the same stream, for by having taken this
direction, we had cut off an extensive curve in its course. The dry
channel of the stream now widened considerably, in some places extending
in a long avenue, between two banks fringed with the rush willow and
mimosa-trees; whilst in others it would suddenly contract, encroached
upon by the huge masses of detached rocks, which seemed continually to
be falling from the edge of the lava-plain of Hy; it would then, when
the soft and yielding alluvial soil of the plain of Ramudalee on the
other side admitted, again expand into wide reaches of a fine white
sand. Where its straight course was most apparent, I took care to
illustrate to Ohmed Medina the condition of our roads in England, to
which, in some places it bore an exact resemblance; and growing out of
this conversation, a long discussion took place between us upon wheel
carriages. The description of the Queen’s state coach was a dream of
gold to him, and upon this, and its probable worth in dollars, he
employed himself thinking for the rest of the day.
Our pedestrian party preceded the camels a long distance, generally
consisting of Ohmed Medina, Garahmee, and the other Hy Soumaulee,
myself, and a variable lot of the camel owners, who would now sit down
and stay, or at other times run forward to join us, as the rugged or
level character of the road decided the necessity of more or less
attention to their camels, and to the security of their loads. The march
was a long one in a south-west direction, and it was very evident that
the plain of Hy was the separation between the waters flowing to the
east into the muddy lake of Gurguddee, and those which directed their
course, through the valley of Gobard, to the large terminal lake of the
Hawash, called Abhibhad. We halted several times, to rest ourselves,
under the shade of some convenient trees, and at one place we sat until
the camels came up. Here we found a welcome spring of pure water, that
was absorbed again by the sand, almost immediately after its escape from
the little circles of stones, through which it bubbled. It was embosomed
in a grove of sweetly-smelling mimosa-trees, that grew very luxuriantly,
favoured by the constant moisture of the soil. We all drank heartily of
the clear sweet water, and reclined upon patches of a fine velvet-like
grass, that beneath the tallest and more solitary trees spread a
beautiful green carpet for our repose.
Whilst thus enjoying our rest, two women and a girl appeared at the
opposite extremity of the valley, driving a few goats before them; their
empty water-skins were fixed upon the loins, and each carried a small
cup, made of a dried gourd-shell, with which they lift the water from
the spring into the skins. Their dog was with them, a kind of
long-legged harrier of a red and white colour, which saluted us after
the usual canine fashion, and received a shower of stones in return. The
women did not seem to be disturbed by our appearance, but came and
saluted all present (myself excepted) in their peculiar manner. I now
learnt, much to my surprise, that one of them was the mother of Omah
Suis, who instead of being one of the Hy Soumaulee tribe, with whom I
had previously classed him, was a Debenee, and son of Abucarl, the last
chief of that tribe, and would, should he outlive Lohitu, the present
possessor of the honours, succeed to the dignity, as the same rule of
descent was observed among them as at Tajourah, the title of Sheik, or
superior, being alternately possessed by the heads of two subdivisions
of the tribe.
This dowager lady of Abucarl, was a fat and rather handsomely made
woman, about forty years of age, at which period the Dankalli women
generally look very haggard. She wore the usual dress, a skin petticoat,
with a short fringe made of thongs attached to the lower edge, and
fastened round her waist by a piece of common palm-leaf rope. Upon her
neck she bore a very large necklace of small spiral shells, of a dark
blue colour, with a continuous white line winding around, and
interspersed with these, were large red beads of some coloured resinous
composition, manufactured on the shores of the Red Sea, and brought from
thence by merchants travelling into the interior. Hanging before her
ears, were large triangularly formed appendages four or five inches
long, the base depending below being, at least, three inches. These were
made of thick brass wire, and from them were suspended, several large
pieces of pewter. At first, I considered them to be the very extreme of
barbarous ear-rings, but on looking more closely, I found they were not
attached to the ear at all, but suspended from the top of the head, and
secured from falling forwards, by narrow fillets of greasy rag tied
behind. A square piece of blue cotton cloth folded into a triangular
shape, and soaking with ghee (the liquid butter of the country) was worn
as a head dress, and protection from the sun. I should observe, that her
hair was plaited into innumerable small strings, similar to the style of
hair-dressing adopted by the women of Gurahgee, and the slave-girls at
Tajourah. I am not quite sure, but I think the hair is also dressed in
this manner by the Soumaulee and Galla females.
Her older friend wore a corresponding dress and ornaments, but the girl
had only the skin petticoat, and held in her hand a pair of old sandles,
made very simply of a single strip of ox-skin fitted to the shape of the
sole of the foot with lappels on each side, to which were attached the
thongs which fastened them upon her feet.
During our conversation with the new comers, the camels, with Omah Suis,
came up; and his mother without any difference of manner, as I could
perceive, performed the usual salutation, by pressing the separate
fingers of his hand successively, as she had done to the least known
individual of the group, and he seemed to be no more affected by her
presence, than if she had been a stranger.
In, about an hour afterwards, we came to our halting-place upon the
gravelly plain of Ramudalee, two or three miles beyond the bed of the
stream, and where it was determined that we should stay some few days to
await the arrival of Lohitu, in whose territories and near whose kraal
we then were. The chief was absent endeavouring to assemble the braves
of the several Dankalli tribes, against the Issah Soumaulee, who had
been making some inroads into the country; and besides stealing some of
his own camels had murdered one of his relations.
When I had taken possession of my hut, Omah Suis brought up his mother,
and told me who she was; and with more affection than I had given him
credit for, remarked that if I thought he was my friend, I was to make
my acknowledgments to her. Now Omah Suis was a very great favourite of
mine, for his willingness to assist, on all occasions, Zaido and Allee
in looking after my mule and building my hut; besides which, as he
scarcely ever begged for anything, but bore himself right royally, I
suppose by virtue of his birth, I had determined in my own mind, to give
him a good present at parting. Having in one of my boxes a much
handsomer necklace than that which his mother had on, I instructed
Allee, who was our interpreter, to tell her to come for it, when, under
cover of night, I could take it unseen by the other natives from the
box. In the mean time, I gave her a fresh cover of blue cotton cloth for
her head, and a few needles, with which she departed very well pleased.
Towards evening she came again for the promised necklace, bringing with
her a large skin full of delicious clotted cream, which she intimated by
significant signs, I must put out of sight, or some one would be sure to
come and steal it; and also, that in the morning, when the sun rose, she
would come again for the bag. I took her advice about hiding it, and
what I did not put out of sight, in the readiest manner, by drinking
there and then, was laid under the head of the mat behind me; and,
during the night, I managed to finish it entirely.
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