A scraggy, misshapen lad, claimed by Aboo Bekr as his own most dutiful
nephew, now paddled alongside in a frail skiff, the devil dancing in his
wicked eye; and having caught the end of a rope thrown by the doting
uncle, he was on board in another instant.
During a former cruise of the "Euphrates," this imp had contrived to
pass on the purser a basket of half-hatched eggs, which he warranted
"new laid," but with which he was subsequently pelted over the gangway.
On being greeted as "Sahib el bayzah," "the master of the eggs," and
asked if he had not brought a fresh supply for sale, grinning archly, he
dragged forward by the topknot a dull, stupid, little wretch--his
messmate--whose heavy features formed the exact reverse of his own
impudent animation. "Here," he exclaimed, "is the identical young
rascal of whom I told you I bought them; he actually stole the whole
from under his mother's hen, and then assured me that they were fresh."
"Why don't you grow taller as well as sharper?" enquired the party upon
whom the precocious child of the sea had imposed; "'tis now twelve
months since you cheated me, and you are as diminutive a dwarf as ever."
"How can any one thrive who is starved," was the prompt reply; "were I
to eat as immoderately as you do, I doubt not I should soon grow as
corpulent."
But the arrival of Ali Shermarki shortly changed this desultory
conversation to weightier matters. This worthy old man, sheikh of the
Somauli tribe Aber Gerhajis, possessing great influence and
consideration among the entire Danakil population of the coast, had been
invited from Zeyla, his usual place of residence, to assist in the
extensive preparations making for the journey of the Embassy; and he now
represented the requisite number of camels to be on their way down from
the mountains, if the assurances of the owners, upon whose word small
reliance could be pieced, were to be implicitly believed.
Long faithfully attached to the British government, the sheikh's first
introduction arose out of a catastrophe which occurred many years ago--
the loss of the merchant brig "Mary Anne" at Berbera, a sea-port on the
Somauli coast, lying immediately opposite to the peninsula of Aden.
Deserted from October till March, it becomes, throughout the residue of
the year, one uninterrupted fair, frequented by ships from the Arabian
shores, by rapacious Banians from India, and by caravans of wandering
savages from all parts of the interior--a vast temporary city or
encampment, populated by not fewer than fifty thousand souls, springing
into existence as if by the magic aid of Aladdin's lamp, and
disappearing so suddenly, that within a single week, not one inhabitant
is to be seen. Yet another six months, and the purse-proud merchant of
Hurrur is again there, with his drove of comely slaves newly exported
from the highlands of Abyssinia. There, too, is the wild pagan,
displaying coffee, peltries, and precious gums from beyond Gurague; and,
punctual as ever, see the kafilah from the distant gurriahs of Amin and
Ogaden, a nomade band, laden with ivory and ostrich plumes, and stained
from head to foot, both in person and in garment, by the impalpable red
dust traversed during the long march from the southward.
Religious prejudices on the part of the wily Hindoo precluding all
traffic in live stock, the Somauli shepherd retains in his own hand the
sale of his black-headed flocks; embarked with which in his frail bark
of fifty tons, he stands boldly across the gulf, at seasons when the
Arab fears even to creep along the coast of the Hejaz. All other trade,
however, is engrossed by the subtle Banian, who divides the _adductor
pollicis_ of the right thumb, in order to increase the span by which his
wares are to be measured; and he, during many years, has enjoyed,
silently and unobserved, the enormous profits accruing from the riches
annually poured out from the hidden regions of Africa. No form of
government regulates the commerce; and, in the absence of imposts,
barter is conducted solely through the medium of a native broker styled
Aban, who, receiving a regulated percentage upon purchases and sales, is
bound, at the risk of his own life, to protect his constituent from
injury or outrage.
A vessel standing towards the coast proves a signal to all who gain
their livelihood by this system, to swim off, and contest first arrival
on board; the winner of the aquatic race, in accordance with ancient
usage, being invariably received as her Aban. Thus it was that Ali
Shermarki became agent to the "Mary Anne," a small English merchantman
from Mauritius, whose captain, imprudently landing with the greater
portion of his crew, afforded to a party of knavish Somauli an
opportunity to cut the cable, when she drifted on shore and was lost.
Hoping by his influence to prevail upon the plunderers to desist, the
Aban, then a younger man, exerted himself to gain the wreck, but he was
repulsed by a shower of spears, and his boat was swamped. A savage
rabble next beleaguered his dwelling, and imperiously demanded the
persons of the officers and crew, in order to put them to death; but,
true to his charge, Ali Shermarki stoutly resisted, and being severely
wounded, succeeded with his blood in securing honourable terms, and
preserving the lives for which he had made himself responsible. His
zealous integrity was duly rewarded by the British Government, and a
sword was presented in token of his gallantry, the display of the
brilliant setting of which led to the narration of the foregoing
history.
The passage from Aden had been made in forty-two hours. As the cable of
the "Euphrates" ran through the hawse-holes, and the rest of the
squadron feu into their places betwixt herself and the shore, she fired
a salute of five guns; and, after considerable delay, a negro was
perceived timidly advancing with a lighted brand from among a knot of
grey-bearded elders, seated in deep consultation beneath the scanty
foliage of an ancient date tree. A superannuated 4 Pr., honey-combed
throughout its calibre, and mounted upon a rickety ship carriage,
tottered on the beach--the sole piece of ordnance possessed by Sultan
Mohammad ibn Mohammad, reputed ruler of all the Danakil tribes. It was,
after much coaxing, persuaded to explode in reply to the compliment
paid, and for some minutes afterwards, wreaths of white smoke continued
to ascend from the chimney-like vent, as though the venerable engine had
taken fire, and was being consumed internally.
The commander of the "Euphrates," whose naval functions were now
temporarily suspended, having long enjoyed the honour of a personal
acquaintance with the potentate bearing the above pompous and
high-sounding title, repaired forthwith to the palace, which consists of
the stern moiety of the ill-starred "Mary Anne," tastily erected, keel
uppermost, in the middle of the town, to serve as an attic story.
Letters of introduction from the political authorities at Aden, with
many complimentary speeches, duly delivered, permission to land was
solicited; and although the formidable array of shipping, whose guns,
not two hundred yards distant, sullenly overlooked the royal lodge, had
given birth to certain misgivings, the Sultan finally overcame his
fears, and acquiesced in the arrangement. A spot of waste land, forming
a common near the mosque, was pointed out as the site upon which to
encamp, but the favour was granted with this express understanding, that
the British Embassy should tarry in so enviable a situation, not one
moment longer than the exigencies of the service imperatively demanded;
a saving clause in the stipulation to which all parties heartily
subscribed.
The bay in which the "Euphrates" now rode, styled, from its wonted
smoothness, "Bahr el Banateen," "the sea of the two nymphs," is a deep
narrow estuary, bounded by a bold coast, and extending, in a
south-westerly direction, about forty-five miles, when the Eesah and
Danakil shores suddenly converge so as to form a straitened channel,
which imparts the figure of an hour-glass. Barely three quarters of a
mile across, this passage is divided by a barren rocky islet styled
"Bab," "the door," as occupying the gateway to the inner bay of Goobut
el Kharab, "the basin of foulness." The vortices formed by the strong
tide setting through these confined apertures, assume a most dangerous
aspect; and although the water in the bowl, whereof the longer axis
measures twelve, and the shorter five miles, is so intensely salt as to
create a smarting of the skin during immersion, mud adhering to the lead
at one hundred fathoms, is perfectly sweet and fresh. Of four islets,
two are rocks; Bood Ali, on the contrary, three hundred feet in height,
and perfectly inaccessible, being thickly encrusted with earth and
vegetable matter, whilst the sides of its nearest neighbour. Hood Ali,
are bare, and present unequivocal traces of more recent volcanic action
than are to be found in the surrounding debris.
Immediately outside the bay, on the Danakil coast, there issues from the
rock below high water line, a spring which, at the flood tide, is
completely effaced; but during the ebb is so intensely hot, that a crab
is instantly destroyed and turned red by immersion. At the western
extremity of Goobut el Kharab, a cove three hundred yards in diameter,
with sixteen fathoms water, is enclosed by precipitous volcanic cliffs,
and the entrance barred by a narrow coral reef, which, at low tide, lies
high and dry. In the waters of this recess is presented one of those
strange phenomena which are not to be satisfactorily explained. Always
ebbing, there is an underflow during even the flood tide; and usually
glassy smooth, they become occasionally agitated by sudden ebullition,
boiling up in whirlpools, which pour impetuously over the bar; whence
the natives, persuaded that there exists a subterranean passage
connected with the great Salt Lake, of which the sparkling expanse is
visible from an intervening high belt of decomposing lava, term the cove
"Mirsa good Ali," "the source of the sea."
Volume One, Chapter VII.
RECEPTION OF THE EMBASSY BY THE SULTAN OF THE SEA-PORT, AND RETURN VISIT
TO HIS HIGHNESS.
The first British camp with which the sea-port of Tajura had been
honoured since its foundation, raised its head on the afternoon of the
18th of May; when the Embassy, accompanied by the officers of both ships
of war in the harbour, landed under a salute of seventeen guns from the
"Euphrates," [commanded by Lieutenant J. Young, I.N.,] and in a spacious
crimson pavilion, erected as a hall of audience, received a visit of
ceremony from the Sultan and his principal chiefs. A more unprincely
object can scarcely be conceived than was presented in the imbecile,
attenuated, and ghastly form of this most meagre potentate, who, as he
tottered into the marquee, supported by a long witch-like wand, tendered
his hideous bony claws to each of the party in succession, with all the
repulsive coldness that characterises a Dankali shake of the hand. An
encourager of the staple manufactures of his own country, his decrepit
frame was enveloped in a coarse cotton mantle, which, with a
blue-checked wrapper about his loins, and an ample turban perched on the
very apex of his shaven crown, was admirably in keeping with the harmony
of dirt that pervaded the attire of his privy council and attendants.
Projecting triangles of leather graced the toes of his rude sandals; a
huge quarto Koran, slung over his bent shoulder, rested beneath the left
arm, on the hilt of a brass-mounted creese, which was girded to the
right side; and his illustrious person was further defended against evil
influence by a zone and bandolier thickly studded with mystic amulets
and most potent charms, extracted from the sacred book. Enfeebled by
years, his deeply-furrowed countenance, bearing an ebony polish, was
fringed by a straggling white beard, and it needed not the science of
Lavater to detect, in the indifference of his dull leaden eye, and the
puckered corners of his toothless mouth, the lines of cruelty, cunning,
and sordid avarice.
His Highness's haggard form was supported by the chief ministers of
Church and State--Abdool Rahman Sowahil, the judge, civil, criminal, and
ecclesiastic, and Hamed Bunaito, the pursy Wazir, whose bodily
circumference was in strict unison with the pomposity of his carriage.
One Saleh Shehem, too, occupied a prominent seat in the upper ranks--a
wealthy slave-merchant, whose frightful deformities have ennobled him
with the title of "Ashrem," which being interpreted signifies, "he of
the hare-lip." This trio alone, of all the unwashed retinue, showed
turbaned heads, every lesser satellite wearing either a natural or
artificial full-bottomed peruke, graced with a yellow wooden skewer,
something after the model of a salad fork, stuck erect in hair well
stiffened with a goodly accumulation of sheep's-tail fat, the rancid
odour whereof was far from enhancing the _agremens_ of the interview.
Izhak and Hajji Kasim, two elders of the blood-royal, with whom a much
closer acquaintance was in store, were perfectly bald,--their
patriarchal bearing and goodly presence affording no bad imitation of
the scriptural illustrations by the old masters of the apostles Saint
Peter and Saint Paul. True to his word, the wag Aboo Bekr, as full of
pleasantries as ever, had donned a preposterous tawny wig, quaintly
manufactured of the fleece of a sheep; and in his smirking, facetious
physiognomy was found the principal relief to the scowling satanic
glances of the ill-favoured rabble, dripping with tallow, and redolent
of abominable smells, who crowded the tent to the choking of every
doorway.
It having heretofore been the invariable maxim of the Sultan to exact a
visit from the stranger before condescending to pay one himself, the
departure from established rule in favour of the liege subjects of Her
Britannic Majesty could not fail to prove eminently gratifying.
Compliments of the most fulsome nature were bandied about with compound
interest, as the coffee-cup passed round to the more distinguished of
the Danakil guests. Promises of assistance the most specious were
lavished by the authorities, in grateful acknowledgment whereof,
Cachemire shawls, and Delhi embroidered scarfs of exquisite workmanship,
were liberally distributed, and as greedily tucked under the dirty cloth
of the avaricious recipients; and although, in accordance with the
unpolished custom of the country, no sort of salutation was offered when
the conference broke up, the filthy guests departed with a semblance of
good humour, that had been observable in none at their first entrance.
Widely different was the mood of the son of Ali Abi, chief of the
Rookhba, as he rushed into the pavilion on the exit of his rival, the
hereditary Sultan of the Danakil. Lucifer, when gazing forth upon the
newly created Paradise, and plotting the downfall of the sinless inmates
of the garden of Eden, looked not half so fiend-like as Mohammad Ali,
whilst, trembling with jealousy and rage, he demanded the reason of
having been so insultingly omitted in the distribution of valuables?
"Am I then a dog," he continued, in the highest indignation, "and not
worth the trouble of propitiating? whereas that old dotard yonder is to
have his empty skull bound with rich shawls from India, and his
powerless relatives decorated from head to foot. Inshallah, we shall
see anon whether the Sultan of the sea-beach, or the son of Ali Abi,
keeps the key of the road to Habesh."
Unlike the succession of every other government in the universe, the
nominal sovereignty of the united tribes composing the Adaiel of Danakil
nation, whereof Tajura is the seat, is alternately vested in the Adali
and the Abli, a Sultan drawn from the one, being succeeded by his Wazir,
who is invariably a member of the other, whilst the individual to fill
the post vacated by the latter, is elected by suffrage from the family
of the Sultan deceased. The town is besides the rendezvous of the petty
chiefs of all the surrounding clans, who, to the number of eight or ten,
claim an equal voice in the senate, and with about an hundred litigious
followers each, make it their head-quarters during the greater portion
of the year. Mohammad Ali is the principal of these, and his powerful
tribe occupying a central position on the road to Abyssinia, he asserts
the right to escort all parties proceeding thither--a right which the
Sultan denies. The necessity of propitiating at one time, and in the
same place, two rival savages, possessing equally the means of
annoyance, whilst neither is sufficiently strong to afford protection
against the interference of the other, rendered the negotiation one of
considerable difficulty and delicacy; nor was it without a vast
expenditure of honied words, that the ruffled temper of the malcontent
was finally soothed, and he was persuaded to waive the assertion of his
recognised claim, until a more suitable opportunity.
All the tents having been erected, the steeds landed and picketed in the
rear, and the heterogeneous mass of property which strewed the sea-beach
reduced to a something less chaotic state, a return visit to His
Highness was paid in full uniform; and the _cortege_ being swelled by
the naval officers, an exceedingly gay procession of cocked hats,
plumes, and gold lace, passed along the strand to the palace, under a
befitting salute from the Brig of war. The lounging population were
altogether lost in amazement at the sight of such magnificence--old and
young, of both sexes, thronging the wayside, with features indicative of
unequivocal admiration at the brilliancy of so unwonted a display.
The thunder of artillery, to which the nervous old Sultan does not
conceal his insuperable aversion, still shook the unpretending couch
whereon he quailed, as the procession entered the fragile tenement of
stakes and matting which constituted the Divan; and which, without
possessing any pretensions to exclude either sun or rain, proved just
sufficiently large to include the entire party. A renewal of
hand-shaking in its coldest form, and a repetition of yesterday's
compliments, and of yesterday's promises mode only to be broken, was
followed by a general sipping of coffee, prepared, not in the royal
kitchen, but in the _cuisine_ of the Embassy; and after being
scrutinised during ten minutes of suffocating heat by numerous female
eyes glistening through an infinity of chinks and perforations in the
envious matting, the party returned, bearing as a costly token of His
Highness's regard, a cloth similar to that composing the royal mantle.
It did indeed, in this instance, form matter of heartfelt
congratulation, that the regal custom was dispensed with, of investing
the honoured guest with a garment from the imperial wardrobe! As the
cavalcade, duly impressed with this sentiment, remounted at the gate of
the thorn inclosure which fortifies the palace, the Sultana vouchsafed a
glimpse of her bedizened person from the stern cabin window of the "Mary
Anne"--the withered frame of the ancient beldame, embedded in spells,
beads, amulets, and grease, forcibly reminding the spectator of the
witch of Endor, and rendering her in very truth, a right seemly partner
for her wrinkled lord.
Volume One, Chapter VIII.