Staying at Ramudalee.—Himyah and his matchlock.—Chase of a
hyæna.—Visitors from the Debenee tribe.—Guinea-fowl shooting.—Ahkeem
shooting.—Arrival of Lohitu, Chief of the Debenee.—April 17th, leave
Ramudalee for the valley of Gobard, general direction S.W., time
occupied on the journey six hours.
_April 15th._—There was some rain a few hours before sunrise, and
however grateful it might be to thirsty nature in this scorched-up
country, I felt very uncomfortable myself, for it came soaking through
my carpet-roof, and I awoke in a state of wretchedness that no physical
misfortune, except actual bodily injury, could have occasioned; but
lying in a heavy rain upon the bare earth, or, what is worse, upon wet
palm-leaves, (for my mats consisted of nothing else,) was but miserable
accommodation for an invalid traveller.
The sun rising, however, put a stop to the descent of the rain, and by
nine o’clock the camp was all comfortably dry again, so rapidly, in this
country, is the water either absorbed by the arid soil or evaporated by
the sun.
Ohmed Medina, and a sporting character who had been a close attendant
upon me during our journey, but of whom I have not had occasion to speak
before, now came to invite me to take a walk around the neighbourhood of
our camp, for in the valley below, and, in fact, on all sides, we could
see considerable numbers of deer, which promised no little sport. The
individual I now introduce to the reader was named Himyah, and was a
tall, ugly, middle-aged man, the very person whom I particularized in
Tajourah as being the possessor of the only matchlock, previous to Mr.
Cruttenden presenting one to the Sultaun’s brother, Izaak. This morning
I found that he had brought his clumsy piece with him; it had escaped my
observation before, from its looking so very little like a gun, as it
was carefully wrapt up in a lot of rags, and lashed behind a heap of
salt on one of Himyah’s camels. Its stock consisted of one long piece of
wood, of equal dimensions through its whole extent, from the muzzle to
the back of the pan of the lock, where a slight bend terminated in a
semi-lunar butt-end, something in the form of half a Dutch cheese, its
round surface being adapted to the hollow of the shoulder. The barrel
was nearly six feet long, and the metal loops for receiving the ramrod
being broken off, this necessary appendage was obliged to be carried in
the barrel, secured within the muzzle by a tightly-fitting piece of
wood.
I was very glad to have the opportunity of seeing the country, which had
become remarkably changed in its character, since crossing the bed of
the stream we travelled down yesterday, and which was a natural
division, very well marked, between the wild volcanic desert to the east
and south, and the extensive undulating plain of gravelly soil to the
west, which was thickly covered with high tufts of a strong, coarse
grass, and afforded plenty of food for the camels. It was, in fact, the
great inducement for our halt at this place, although attributed by the
politic Ohmed Mahomed, to a desire on his part not to offend Lohitu, by
passing any further through his dominions without a conference.
Mimosa-trees also abounded here, and their bright green delicate
foliage, when growing closely together, made some better watered parts
of the country look as if covered with extensive meadows. Herds of some
hundreds of a species of antelope, called “wydiddoo” could be observed
in one direction, feeding on the edges of these woods, whilst on the
other side, the less but more elegant “symbilla” was raising itself
almost into the trees, to reach the tufts of curled seed-pods, that form
its favourite food. These pods were also being gathered in considerable
quantities by the camel-men, who placed them carefully in their
body-cloths, or tobes, and intended them as a _bonne bouche_, for any
camel deemed not altogether in such condition, as its owner could wish.
They were always a dose at bed-time, being given the last thing, after
the camels had been driven home, and had lain down for the night.
Ohmed Medina, Zaido, and Allee, with their spears and shields,
accompanied Himyah and myself with our guns, and we proceeded down the
face of the declivity, from our camp to the edge of the winding
watercourse in front. Here, on the stiff clay of the not yet quite dried
up pools which resulted from this morning’s rain, we found the large
footprints of a hyæna, that had been prowling round the camp, and we
immediately set about following the traces, in the hopes of meeting a
nobler object of attack, than the fearful and provokingly shy antelope.
These foot-marks took us in the direction of the lava-plain of Hy, and
we soon found, that the extreme difficulty of recovering several times
the broken trail, and the little chance we, could have, in the country
he seemed to have retired to, of coming upon his retreat before he
discovered our approach, offered no sufficient inducement for us to
continue the chase.
Ohmed Medina had just come to a stand, and was making the proposal for
us to return, when Zaido and Allee, simultaneously pointed in the
direction of one of the numerous kairns, that mark the graves of the
Dankalli. There we saw the object of our pursuit on the look-out, and
apparently watching our movements, his grizzly head and high shoulders,
protruding beyond the cover afforded by a large kairn, at the distance
of at least four times the range of my short carbine. To circumvent him
by some means or other, however, was our determination, so Ohmed Medina
directed us all to squat down on our heels, as in the usual manner for a
calahm, I having intimated to him, the impossibility of my killing the
beast so far off, by shaking my head, and pointing to the length of my
gun, and then to the great distance intervening. By good fortune, the
hyæna seemed as determined as ourselves, to see the affair properly
over, and kept his eyes fixed upon us all the time, as if we had been
sitting in the direction he wished to go, and was waiting for us to
retire.
After a few words amongst ourselves, Himyah got out of the little
circle, and first moving off towards the camp, until well out of sight
of the hyæna, he made a sudden turn to the right, and stealing among the
detached portions of rock, which abounded along the edges of the plain,
he, in a short time, made his appearance again far in the rear of the
animal, who was still sitting, like ourselves, on its haunches, and not
in the least aware of the dangerous proximity of the ugly Dankalli, with
his still more ugly matchlock. All at once we saw Himyah drop behind a
large stone, that quite screened him from our observation, during the
long time he was taking his aim, but which, it seems, afforded him a
most advantageous rest for the long barrel of his piece. After some
minutes of suspense, a little puff of smoke from the pan of his large
lock, told that at length the death of our victim was determined. We
were, however, disappointed, for no report followed, and again we had to
wait for the long operation, of pricking and priming the touch-hole
afresh, and we certainly began to think that before Himyah could get
ready, the hyæna would be off. But he was a doomed beast, and his senses
had left him; so at last bang went the matchlock, knocking Himyah into
sight one way by the recoil, and on the other, the hyæna over and over
into the open ground, where Zaido and Allee, racing to be first, soon
terminated his struggles with their spears. Himyah was delighted with
the success of his shot. Ohmed Medina thought the old matchlock was a
“tihebe bandook” (a capital gun), whilst Zaido and Allee were beckoning
a crowd of Bedouins and Kafilah men, who had heard the report, and were
now hastening in a long line, to witness the grand feat in the sporting
annals of their country, the honour of which belonged entirely to them,
through Himyah’s creditable firing, and who was saluted accordingly by
several as an “Engreez got-tam,” (English soldier.)[3]
Footnote 3:
Unfortunately, the very blasphemous ejaculation, so frequently used by
our soldiers in their conversations, has become their cognomen in the
East, and is the only word which the Dankalli employ to designate
them. I well recollect that when Ohmed Mahomed was telling me about
the murder at Gunguntur, on my asking him how many were killed, he
replied “Two got-tam,” (the two soldiers) “and one radgpoot,” this
being the Portuguese cook.
After Himyah had been duly congratulated and praised on all sides, I
began to examine a severe wound on his face, which had been cut by the
butt end of his matchlock in the recoil; and it was well that the
cheek-bone, was in his case unusually high and prominent, or he would
certainly have seriously damaged his eye, or perhaps knocked it out
altogether. A piece of my frock, which I tore off for the occasion, and
a little shaking of my powder-flask over the wound, set all to rights
again, and having presented him with nearly twelve charges of powder, as
a reward for his dexterity, I made him both comfortable and happy, under
the circumstances, and we proceeded afresh in search of game.
We descended into the bed of the stream which we kept along but a very
short time before we came upon a numerous covey of fine guinea-fowl,
walking before us at a rapid rate. I should suppose there were nearly
fifty or sixty of them, and whether it was that numbers gave confidence,
or that they were unsuspicious, from never having been molested before,
after having got out of our direct course, they seemed to think, that
was quite as much as was expected or wanted, and began pecking away on
the banks on either side again, with as much careless ease, as if they
had been so many barn-door fowls. I soon drew the charge of one of my
barrels, and substituted some shot for the bullet with which it was
loaded; for having anticipated meeting with only large animals, I had
prepared accordingly. Leaving the group of my attendant friends, I crept
to the trees which fringed the borders of the watercourse, and surprised
myself exceedingly by finding, as I cautiously looked up, that I was not
more than ten or fifteen yards from several dozen of the guinea-fowl,
who only walked on a little farther when they saw me.
It was a sad case of misplaced confidence; for upon the strength of
their great tameness, I took the opportunity of adding a few of the fine
small pebbles, which abounded where I stood, to the charge of shot, and
on firing this mixture among them, eight or nine of these fine birds
fell fluttering together. As one or two, which were but slightly
wounded, succeeded in getting away, I sprang forward to pick up the
rest, a task in which I was assisted by Zaido, Allee, and Himyah, who,
with their long knives unsheathed, seemed as if rushing to an attack
upon the Muditu, or Issah Soumaulee. I soon found that all this hurry,
was to secure the performance of the rites of religion over the dying
birds; each being taken up, the head turned towards Mecca, and the
throat cut, whilst the usual short prayer of Ul’ Allah, or Allah Achbah,
was hurriedly pronounced.
One, and only one, was voted too late to receive the last consolations
of religion, although I am sure, that more than one half of the others
were quite dead, before this attention could be paid to them. To this
one, over which no rite was performed, I volunteered to give a Christian
burial with rice, &c., in my cooking-pot. As I thus got as much as I
wanted in return for my shot, whilst the other birds went to my Islam
attendants, the division was hailed with universal approbation, and was
followed by a general consent to return to camp, bearing our game in
triumph slung upon a spear, and carried on the shoulders of two men.
This was the best course that could be adopted, for what with the report
of the guns, and the noisy talking crowd of Bedouins who had now
collected, there was not much likelihood that we should have another
chance of adding to our bag, as everything in the shape of an antelope
had taken alarm and trotted away to a distance, farther than Ohmed
Medina deemed it prudent for us to follow.
In the afternoon several men of the Debenee tribe came into camp. They
were very friendly, and accordingly very troublesome, pestering me for
the remainder of the day, for small presents of needles, paper, and
buttons. Tobacco was a continual demand of theirs, and the only method I
could take to get rid of them was by referring them to Ohmed Mahomed,
who undertook, at my request, to divide two large skin bags of this
luxury amongst them. Women also brought milk in large quantities, which
they offered for the most trifling things. A square bit of paper,
scarcely four inches in extent, would purchase at least a gallon of the
richest and sweetest milk, and Allee, Zaido, and myself so satisfied
ourselves with it, as to be enabled to present the guinea-fowls,
intended for our dinner in the evening, to others less fortunate than
ourselves. As my particular one had been boiled in the same cooking pot
with the rest, and the bit of stick that had been placed upon it as a
mark, being lost, I thought, of course, that all must go to the dogs;
but silence upon the subject was the order of the day, nothing being
said about it by us, and no questions asked by the others, so the birds,
both the Christian and Islam, were gladly received and speedily
devoured, by our hungry and unscrupulous friends.
The next morning I proposed hunting again, and the same party as
yesterday started, but as we could get no opportunity of approaching the
antelopes near enough for a shot, Himyah, of whose dexterity as a
marksman I had had honourable evidence the day before, tried this
morning his skill upon me, but fortunately, having no rest for his
matchlock, the ball went some few inches over my head. The circumstances
that occasioned this were most singular and accidental. Before us was a
herd of about twenty Wydiddoo antelopes; their white faces, yellow
sides, and black straight horns, just visible over the tall grass, among
which they were feeding. It was to outflank these, and take them on
whichever side they should dart when they discovered us, that directed
the plan of our approach. We both stooped low upon the ground, and crept
cautiously along so as to be lost entirely to sight among the grass. In
this tiresome manner we proceeded for about a quarter of an hour, both
diverging nearly in a right line from each other, the rest of our party
all this time sitting close to the ground, in the place where we started
from. We moved in opposite directions, until we had placed a distance of
at least half a mile between us, before we began to bend again towards
the sides of the herd, and as I had to get within eighty yards of them,
before I could fire with any hope of success, whilst Himyah’s long
matchlock would carry pointblank at least two hundred yards, he arrived
at a point favourable for a shot, long before I did. My yellow Arab
dress was exactly the colour of the deer, and the short barrel of my
carbine projecting over my head, as I carried it conveniently upon my
shoulder, made no bad representation of a horn, especially when seen in
profile, and in fact I intended taking advantage, of all these
favourable circumstances, to aid me in my approach on our timid game.
Just as my heart was beating thick, with the hopes and expectancy of a
successful shot, and I had begun actually to laugh in my sleeve, at the
simplicity of the deceived animals, all at once I was astonished by the
sharp _phit_ of a ball, as it passed close to my head, followed by a
report, that for a moment seemed to paralyze the startled deer, but
which, before I could recover from my own surprise, placed a long
distance between me and them. The astonishment of Himyah may be supposed
when he saw me bound to my feet. His first idea was to seek for shelter
among the high grass, either to cover himself from the expected shot in
return, or to hide himself altogether from my sight. Seeing me, however,
turning from him and look towards the deer, to see if any chance of
obtaining a shot still existed, he made off directly to Ohmed Medina, to
whom he was relating all the particulars when I came up. With apparent
fear, that for the future I should mistrust his intentions towards me,
he immediately took my hand between his, and protested in an emphatic
manner, that it had been the deception of my appearance, which had so
extraordinarily misled him, in this attempt to procure some venison. I
readily excused him; but after this adventure it was determined that we
should return to camp, as in our limited sporting ground, there was no
hope of obtaining that day, such another chance as the one we had just
lost; and besides, the sun was getting so exceedingly powerful, that we
were all glad to escape from its burning rays.
Omah Suis, in return for the presents I had made his mother, brought me
several pounds of fine Owssa dates, which added not a little to the
savouriness of my rice puddings, for I had begun to boil my usual mess
with milk instead of water, adding not a little to Zaido’s knowledge of
cooking, which had wonderfully increased since his association with me,
he having learnt to curry a guinea-fowl, and to make sougee-gruel almost
as well as myself.
On the occasions of previous journeys, he often remarked, he had eaten
nothing the whole way, but wheat boiled in water, and broken dried bread
of the jowaree flour. I am afraid he was rendered unhappy for the rest
of his life; for after his acquaintance with me, and the diet I had
accustomed him to, he never could, I should think, relish again the
simple fare of his countrymen. The jowaree bread, for example, was a
crumbly dust, of a bright red colour, very sour to the taste. I have
eaten many handfuls of it on emergencies, certainly, but it was only
because I could get nothing else. The boiled wheat was another of their
messes; this, with rich clotted cream, was not so unpalatable, although
my puddings of dates, rice, and milk, were allowed to be greatly
superior, and a volunteer dinner party, were always ready to finish the
contents of a large cooking-pot, which, for the sake of popularity, I
used to direct Zaido to prepare every day.
On the second evening of our stay at Ramudalee, after I had turned in,
Zaido disturbed me to report the arrival of Lohitu, who had come into
camp with three or four attendants, and who very shortly afterwards made
his appearance with Ohmed Medina and Ohmed Mahomed, and sat talking till
near midnight at the entrance of my hut. A bowl of rice was prepared for
them by Zaido, who called me up again to lend them my only spoon, which
was used alternately, one after the other taking it, and having conveyed
a large quantity of rice into his mouth, gave it to his neighbour in the
politest manner possible. After this social repast, rolling themselves
in their tobes, they lay down upon mats, which Zaido had placed for that
purpose, and continued their conversation until long after I was asleep.
I noticed that there was more real respect paid to this chief than to
all the others we met with on the road; and as Lohitu had a very great
character for generosity of disposition, and was also acknowledged to be
the bravest man of his tribe, I think that the attention paid to him by
the heads of our Kafilah, and which was very marked, was from sincere
feelings of regard, and not from any fear of his power to injure us.
_April 17th._—Whilst the camels were being loaded this morning, Lohitu
was busily engaged canvassing all my Hy Soumaulee friends, to engage
them on an expedition against the Issah Soumaulee, and Garahmee, Moosa,
and Adam Burrah, consented, after their return from Shoa, to accompany
him. Omah Suis came in high glee, to announce the fact of their adhesion
to the cause of the Debenee having been obtained, and which he was at
great pains to make me understand, was entirely owing to the
overpowering eloquence of his chief. He came, also, to bid me farewell,
as he said he should not see me again, until I returned to his country,
where he assured Allee, who was, as usual, our interpreter, I might
always come with perfect security. When he went away, I put into his
hand two dollars, as his proportion of the sum, I had agreed to give my
escort to accompany me to Shoa. As he received them with many thanks,
nor even attempted to make a claim beyond them, as I expected he would,
I could not let him go, without bestowing upon him the remaining three
dollars, exacting a promise that he would not say a word about the
extraordinary gift to any one, for I could not expect to meet another
moderate man among the generally greedy and rapacious Bedouins, and who,
had they known it, would never have rested until they had received the
same amount. His present of the dates, was worth the three additional
dollars I gave him, for although their real value was not, perhaps, the
third of the sum, the feeling that prompted him, to make a long day’s
journey, to procure them for me, was so gratifying, and so unexpectedly
met with in an Adal savage, that I should not have felt satisfied with
myself, if I had not returned his kindness in some way or other.
We marched for five hours, sometimes west-south-west, but more
frequently south-west, over the extensive undulating plain of
Abiheosoph, continuous with the plain of Ramudalee, and of the same
geological character, a shingly kind of gravel, formed of small angular
fragments of every kind of volcanic rock. As we approached the bank of a
stream, covered with mimosa and other trees, I noticed, that this
gravelly formation had been denuded, into numerous small hills of
uniform height, by the occasionally running waters which fed the stream.
Another remarkable feature, was the protruded ridges of a few feet high
of black cellular lava, and which extended in directions generally due
north and south. A coarse kind of grass, in high and large tufts,
covered this plain, and numerous ant-hills raised their tops some feet
higher than any of the Kafilah men. It was not unusual for one of these
to be made a kind of look-out. Perched upon the summit, some curious
Bedouin, squatting upon his heels, would peer above his shield, looking,
as I thought, something like a bronze Blemmyes upon a conical pedestal.
On the road, we passed the carcase of a recently deceased ox, which had
fallen up to his shoulders, through the frail roof of earth, that
covered the den of a wild boar, and in that miserable situation, unable
to extricate himself, must the animal have hung suspended until dead.
From Abiheosoph we descended, by a gentle declivity, through a grove of
the most powerfully-scented mimosa-trees, from whose high branches,
depended the large drop-like nests, so characteristic of the African
oasis. During our progress, we flushed, from among the roots of long dry
grass, several large coveys of the earth-coloured small desert
partridge; and vast herds of antelopes, disturbed by our approach,
cantered gently away among the thin trunks of the trees, and then
halting, turned round to take a long inquisitive gaze at the intruders.
We soon reached the stream of Gobard, which was flowing nearly due west
into the Lake Abhibhad. Where we crossed over, it was not more than two
feet deep and thirty feet wide, and to ford it I merely took off my
boots, and turned my trowsers up above my knees. We then marched another
hour, upon the beautiful green-sward of this Adal Eden, walking nearly
all the way, under large natural parasols of high mimosa-trees, some
distance intervening between the trunks of each, yet their
widely-spreading tops, encroaching upon each other on every side, formed
one continued grove.
Our halting-place was under the farther bank of the valley of the
Gobard, a steep, stony, water-worn ridge, called San-karl, at the
distant extremity of which, towards the east, a singular pyramidal
monument had been in view nearly the whole day. I was very well content
to lie down, by the side of Lohitu and Ohmed Medina, immediately we
arrived, I was so tired by my long march of six hours, having walked at
least twelve miles, the latter part under a burning sun. In this
situation I soon fell asleep, and did not wake until some time after my
hut was erected. Ohmed Medina, then retiring himself, shook me by the
shoulder, and recommended me not to continue longer under the trees,
beneath the shade of which we had been resting ourselves. He also
promised to come to my hut, and have a long talk with me about the
Hawash, and told me to get out some paper, as he would write a map of
the country for my information. As he spoke, he directed my attention to
the termination of the valley to the west, and concluded by saying,
“Beyond those trees the river ends.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------