In the heart of the peninsula of Arabia, environed on every side by
rocky mountains, there stood, in the middle of the sixth century, a
celebrated pagan shrine, that had been held in the most exalted
veneration during fourteen hundred years. The edifice was believed to
cover the hallowed remains of Ishmael, the father of the wandering
Bedouin, and it contained a certain sacred black stone, whereon the
Patriarch Jacob saw the vision of angels ascending into heaven. On its
site, according to the Arab tradition, Adam pitched his tent when
expelled from the garden of Eden, and there died Eve, the partner of his
fall, whose grave of green sods is shown to the present day, upon the
barren shores of the Red Sea.
This shrine, of course, was none other than the famous temple of the Sun
at Mecca, since so consecrated by the lawgiver of the Mohammadans, as to
form the focus of attraction to every true believer. The extraordinary
veneration it received in those early days, concentrating the tide of
commerce, rendered it the absorbing mart of Eastern trade. Abyssinia at
that period held in occupation the adjacent provinces of Arabia Felix,
and Abrahah, the vicegerent of Yemen, conceiving the idea of diverting
the channel to his own advantage, erected in the country of the
Homerites a splendid Christian church, which, under the title of
Keleisa, he endowed with the same privileges, immunities, and
emoluments, that had pertained, from all antiquity, to the shrine of
Sabaean idolatry.
"If," says Gibbon, "a Christian power had been maintained in Arabia,
Mahomet must have been crushed in his cradle, and Abyssinia would have
prevented a revolt which has changed the civil and religious aspect of
the world." But alarmed at the prospect of the desertion of their
temple both by votaries and merchants, the Beni Koreish, who held the
keys of the black stone in hereditary right, polluted the rival fane at
Saana, which had no equal, saving the palace of the Hamyar kings, and
was calculated to ensure the veneration of every pilgrim. Out of this
sacrilege and affront arose the event celebrated in the Koran as "the
war of the Elephant." Mounted on a huge white elephant, Abrahah,
surnamed El Ashrem, placing himself at the head of a vast army,
proceeded to take revenge on the idolaters; but, misled by intelligence
artfully given by Aboo Taleb, grandfather to the Apostle of God, he
destroyed, instead of the Kaaba, a temple of Osiris at Taief, and the
first recorded appearance of the small-pox, shortly afterwards
annihilated the Christian forces.
The wars that distracted all Arabia, between the Greeks and Persians in
the first instance, and subsequently between Mahomet and the population
in support of his divine mission, had greatly impaired the traffic
carried on by general consent at the temple of Mecca. A caravan
scarcely ever ventured forth by any road, that it was not plundered by
the opposing partisans, and merchants as well as trade gradually
departed south of the Arabian Gulf, to sea-ports which in earlier times
had been the emporia of commerce with the East. Raheita, Zeyla, Tajura,
and a number of other towns in the Indian Ocean, thus recovered their
importance and their lost prosperity. The conquest of the Abyssinian
territories in Arabia, drove every Ethiopian to the African shores.
Little districts now grew into great consideration. Mara, Hadea, Aussa,
and Adel, amongst other petty states, assumed unto themselves the title
of kingdoms, and shortly acquired power and wealth eclipsing many of the
more ancient monarchies.
The miserable town of Tajura, "the city of the slave-merchant," as it
exists at the present day, demands no further description. It was for
two years in the hands of the Turks, who occupied it after the taking of
Massowah, and converted into a fort a venerable mosque, now in ruins, on
the sea-beach near the palace. But no consistent chronicle, either of
the capture or evacuation, is to be expected where every man is
notorious equally as a boaster and a liar, and making himself the
individual hero in every passage of arms, never foils to extol his own
clan as immeasurably superior in valour to every other. The melancholy
aspect of the place is but too well calculated to convey to the
traveller a foretaste of the sufferings inseparable from a pilgrimage
through any portion of the country denominated Adel; and each barbarian
of the entire population of Tajura will be found, on sad experience, a
type of the Dankali nation!
Bigoted Mohammadans, punctual to the call of the Muezzin, praying three
times in excess of the exactions of the Prophet, often passing the
entire night in the mosque, or sitting in council at its threshold;
sedulously attentive to the outward forms of their creed, though few
have sufficient energy to undertake a pilgrimage to the Kaaba, and
content, like other hypocrites, with a rigid observance of externals--
the Danakil rise from their devotions well primed with Moslem
intolerance, and are perfectly ready to lie and cheat as occasion may
offer. Unoccupied, and at a loss for honest employment, idlers without
number sauntered about the pavilion at all times and seasons, entering
at pleasure, and monopolising chairs and tables with the insolent
independence which forms one of their most prominent features.
Supported by a long staff, the ruffians gazed for hours together at the
novel splendour of the equipage; and invariably disfigured by a large
quid of tobacco adulterated with ashes, squirted the redundant saliva
over the carpet, although squatted on the outside of the door, with
ample space at command. But although thieves by profession on a grand
scale, they fortunately contrived to keep their hands from picking and
stealing; and notwithstanding that the tents were thus thronged from
morning till night, and the sea-beach for many weary days was strewed
with boxes and bales of truly tempting exterior, nothing whatever was
abstracted.
The classic costume of the people of this sea-port consists of a white
cotton robe, thrown carelessly over the shoulder, in the manner of the
old Roman toga; a blue-checked kilt reaching to the knees, simply
buckled about the waist by a leathern belt, which supports a most
formidable creese, and a pair of rude undressed sandals to protect the
feet of such as can afford the luxury. The plain round buckler and the
broad-headed spear, without which few ever cross their threshold,
renders the naturally graceful and manly figure of almost every
individual a subject for the artist's pencil; but the population are to
a man filthy in the extreme, and the accumulated dirt upon their persons
and apparel leaves a taint behind, that might readily be traced without
the intervention of a bloodhound. Rancid mutton fat, an inch thick,
frosts a bushy wig of cauliflower growth, which harbours myriads of
vermin. Under the melting rays of a tropical sun, the grease pours
copiously over the skin; and the use of water, except as a beverage,
being a thing absolutely unheard-of, a Dankali pollutes the atmosphere
with an effluvium, such as is only to be encountered elsewhere in the
purlieus of a tallow-chandler's shop.
All are vain of scars, and desirous of displaying them; but little
favour is shown for other outward ornament; and the miserly disposition
which pervades the breast both of young and old, inducing an effort
towards the concealment of property possessed, a paltry silver ring in
the ear, a band of copper wire round the junction of the spear-blade
with the shaft, or pewter mountings to the creese, form the sum total of
decoration on the arms and persons even of the most extravagant. Fops
in numbers are to be seen at Tajura, who have called in the aid of moist
quick-lime towards the conversion of the naturally jet black peruke to a
most atrocious foxy red--when judicious frizzing, and the insertion of
the wooden skewer, used for scratching, completes the resemblance to a
carriage mop. But this novel process of dyeing, so contrary to that
employed by civilised beaux, is only in fashion among the Somauli, who,
in common with the Danakil dandies, employ, in lieu of a down pillow, a
small wooden bolster, shaped like a crutch, which receives the neck, and
during the hours of presumed uncomfortable repose, preserves the periwig
from derangement.
Massy amulets in leathern envelopes, or entire Korans in quarto or
octavo, are borne on the unpurified person of almost every individual;
and the ancient Arab remedy of swallowing the water in which passages
from the holy book have been washed from the board or paper whereon they
were inscribed, is in universal repute, as a sovereign medicine for
every ailment to which frail flesh is heir--the firm of Sultan, Wazir
and Kazi, who alone possess the privilege of wearing turbans, holding
the monopoly, and driving a most profitable trade by the preparation of
this simple, but potent specific. Large doses of melted sheep's-tail
fat are moreover swallowed on certain occasions; and a native Esculapius
gave proof of the perfection to which the dentist's art has attained at
Tajura, by dexterously detaching a carious tooth from the stubborn jaws
of a submissive old woman, with the patent machinery of a rusty nail as
a punch, struck with a heavy stone picked up on the sea-beach, where the
operation was performed for the edification of the encampment.
Applications were nevertheless frequent for European aid--a venerable
priest numbering threescore years and ten, peremptorily demanding, in
addition to a philter, the instantaneous removal of two obstinate
cataracts, which had long dimmed his sight, and upon which he had vainly
expended the teeth of half the mules in Tajura, roasted, and reduced to
an impalpable powder.
Education, to the extent of spelling the Koran, is general, and all
speak Arabic as well as Dankali; the lore of the most learned being
however restricted to a smattering of the holy book, with a very
confused idea of numerals, and ability to endite a scraggy Arabic
letter, which, when completed with infinite labour, the writer is often
puzzled to decipher. To the immortal honour of the Sultan be it here
recorded, that although the oldest male inhabitant of Tajura, he is a
solitary instance of non-acquaintance with the alphabet. The swarthy
cheek of every urchin who distinguishes himself by diligence or
quickness, receives in token thereof, a dash of white chalk, a black
streak in like manner disgracing the idle and stupid; but the pedagogue
would appear to omit the residue of this oriental custom--the stuffing
the mouths of the well-behaved with sugar-candy, which would doubtless
prove a source of much greater enjoyment.
In the evening the ingenuous youth of the town, each armed with a creese
in case of quarrel, convene in numbers on the common, to play a game
which combines hockey and football; the residue of their time being
spent in angling, when the juvenile Walton stands up to the chin in the
salt sea, and employing his head as a substitute for the reel, spins out
a dozen yards of line in a truly fisherman-like manner. Numbers spent
the period of their relaxation from study in gaping with the adults at
the door of the pavilion, whilst the magic effect of the magnet was
exhibited, or fire produced from the human mouth by means of a
promethean, here emphatically denominated "the devil."
The softer sex of Tajura, whilst young, possess a tolerable share of
comeliness, and a pleasing expression withal; but they are speedily past
the meridian of beauty. A close blue chemise, a plain leathern
petticoat, or a cloth reaching to the ankles, and a liberal coat of lard
over extravagantly braided ringlets, which are knotted with white beads,
form the toilet of maid, wife, and widow. An occasional necklace of
coloured beads falling over the sable bosom, a pendant of brass or
silver wire of no ordinary dimensions in the ear, and large ivory
bracelets or anklets, proclaim the besetting foible of the sex: but
ornaments are by no means general. Mohammadan jealousy tends to the
seclusion of the better order of females to a certain extent; but a
marriage in high life, when the procession passed close to the
encampment, afforded an opportunity not always enjoyed, of beholding the
beauty and fashion of the place. The matrimonial shackles are here
easily loosed; and the greater portion of the population being deeply
engaged in the slave trade with the interior, have their rude houses
filled with temporary wives, who are from time to time unceremoniously
shipped for the Arabian market, in order that the funds accruing from
the sale of their persons may be invested in new purchases.
Agriculture there is none. Every man is a merchant, and waxes
sufficiently rich on his extensive slave exportations, to import from
other climes the produce he requires. An extensive traffic is carried
on with Aussa and Abyssinia, in which nearly all are engaged at some
period of the year. Indian and Arabian manufactures, pewter, zinc,
copper and brass wire, beads, and salt in large quantities, are at these
inland marts exchanged for slaves, grain, ivory, and other produce of
the interior,--salt and human beings forming, however, the chief
articles of barter. Virgin Mary German crowns of Maria Theresa, 1780,
as integrals, and strips of raw hide for sandal soles, as fractionals,
form the currency of the sea-port; beads, buttons, mirrors, trinkets,
empty bottles, snuff, and tobacco, for which latter there is an
universal craving, being also received in exchange for the necessaries
of life.
Avarice is the ruling passion--the salient point in the character of the
Dankali. His whole soul is engrossed in amassing wealth, whilst he is
by nature indolent and lazy, and would fain acquire riches without
treading the laborious uphill path towards their attainment. Miserly in
disposition, there is not an individual of the whole community, from the
Sultan downwards, who would not infinitely prefer the present receipt of
two pieces of silver, to a promissory note for twenty at the expiration
of a week, upon the very best security. "Trees attain not to their
growth in a single day," remarked Ali Shermarki, after remonstrating
with the grasping ruler on his inordinate love of lucre--"take the tree
as your text, and learn that property is only to be accumulated by slow
degrees."
"True," retorted the old miser--"but, Sheikh, you must have lost sight
of the fact, that my leaves are already withered, and that if I would be
rich I have not a moment to lose."
Volume One, Chapter IX.