Two windy nights, during which it blew a perfect hurricane, were passed
in unabated vigilance, owing to the number of ruffians lurking about the
broken ground, the waters whereof tumble in the rainy season into the
rugged chasm of Killulloo. At an early hour on the 2nd of July, a voice
went through the camp, summoning the slothful camel-drivers to bestir
themselves; and the incessant growling of their disturbed beasts, which
arose in various keys of dissatisfaction from every part of the circle,
followed by drowsy Danakil imprecations, and by the merciless
dismantling of huts, to the destruction of bales and boxes, presently
announced that the work of loading had duly commenced.
A march of fifteen miles over a country more level than usual, though
sufficiently rough and stony withal, led through the Doomi valley to
Naga Koomi. An abutting prong of land, under which the road wound, was
adorned with a cluster of bee-hive-shaped huts styled Koriddra, and at
its base the _Balsamodendron Myrrha_ grew abundantly, the aromatic
branches famishing every savage in the caravan with a new tooth-brush,
to be carried in the scabbard of the creese. The encampment occupied a
wide, dreary plain, bounded by the high mountain range of Jebel Feeoh;
and although water was said to exist in the neighbourhood, it proved too
distant to be accessible.
The Ras el Kafilah, at whose hands the Franks experienced about the same
amount of respect and tolerance as a rich Jew in the days of Coeur de
Lion, here imperiously demanded daily rations of rice and dates for the
band of spearmen left as an escort by the Akil of the Hy Somauli; and on
being informed that this very unreasonable request could not be complied
with, in consequence of the tedious delays on the road having reduced
the supplies so low as to be barely sufficient to last to Abyssinia, his
brow became suddenly overcast, he relapsed into his wonted ill-humour,
rejected a tendered sheep with indignation, and flung out of the tent in
a passion.
It rained heavily during the greater part of the night, and an early
summons to rise found the party again drenched to the skin. The
inclement weather had not by any means tended to restore Izhak to
smiles; and his mats having proved quite insufficient to preserve him
from full participation in the pleasures of the nocturnal bath, the
effect upon his temper was but too manifest. "Don't whistle, don't
whistle!" he exclaimed with a sneer to one of his charge, who was so
amusing himself within hearing; "what are you whistling for? I have
loaded the camels under a prayer from the sacred Koran, and you are
doing your best to break the spell, and call up gins by your whistling.
`_La illah illallah, wo Mohammad rasul illah_;'" "there is no God but
God, and Mohammad is the Prophet of God."
"_Fein tero_? In the name of the three kaliphs where are you going to?"
again vociferated the testy old man, in a terrible passion, to the same
luckless individual, who, with a loaded rifle in his hand, had now left
the road in pursuit of an antelope. "`_Taal henna_!' `Come back, will
you!' _Wullah_! you'll be getting your throat cut presently by the
Buddoos, and then I shall be asked what has become of you. Can't you
keep the road? This ugly defile is named `the place of lions,' and one
of them will be eating you anon."
Another march of fifteen miles brought the caravan to Meinha-tolli,
where some hollows had been filled by the recent heavy fall of rain; but
large droves of horned cattle having soiled in them, the muddy water was
so strongly tainted as to be barely drinkable under any disguise. The
country throughout bears signs of violent volcanic eruption of later
times, which has covered one portion with lava, and another with ashes
and cinders. At the outset the road led over the usual basaltic ground,
strewed with fragments of obsidian, but after crossing Arnoot, a deep
ravine choked with refreshing green bushes, in which the exhausted
beasts obtained a most welcome supply of muddy water, the stony valleys
gave place to sandy plains, clothed with short yellow grass, and
intersected by low ranges of hills.
One wide level expanse, termed Azoroo, stretching at the foot of the
peaked mountain Aiulloo, was pointed out in the distance as the scene of
a signal victory gained about six years since by the Woema over their
predatory foes the Mudaito. The bones of upwards of three thousand of
the combatants which now whiten the sands, have caused the desertion of
the best road by the superstitious Danakil. With the escort were many
warriors who had taken part in this engagement, and they described the
conflict, which commenced in a night attack, to have raged, spear to
spear, and shield to shield, throughout the entire of the following day,
towards the close of which the "red house" was routed.
As usual, in the evening we sent for a sheep from our flock, but the Ras
el Kafilah stoutly asserted that the whole had been transferred to
himself for consumption by the escort of Hy Somauli, and although
eventually compelled to relinquish one, he did so with an extremely bad
grace. Thunder and lightning, with severe squalls and heavy rain, again
closed the day--and great confusion and discomfort was occasioned by a
sudden whirl of wind, followed by the fall upon the party, of the
saturated tent, from the wet folds of which escape was not easily
effected. A dreary night succeeded. The watery moon shed but a dull
and flitting light over the drenched camp; and the pacing officer of the
watch, after an hour's exposure to the pitiless hurricane, calling up
his relief, threw himself with aching bones upon the inundated bed.
"Did I not tell you what would be the consequence of your abominable
whistling," grumbled old Izhak, the first thing in the morning; "old Ali
Arab is too sick to be moved, and one of my best camels has strayed,
Allah knows where." The rope with which the legs of the lost animal had
been fettered, was meanwhile rolled betwixt his hands, and sundry
cabalistic words having been muttered whilst the Devil was dislodged by
the process of spitting upon the cord at the termination of each spell,
it was finally delivered over to the Dankali about to be sent on the
quest, and he presently returned successful.
Ahmed Mohammad, the messenger who had been despatched from Tajura with
an Arabic letter for Sahela Selassie, requesting assistance on the road,
returned during this delay. He had passed the night in a Bedouin
encampment, the proximity of which had been betrayed by the barking of
dogs at each discharge of the musket when the sentinel was relieved.
The courier brought advices to the Embassy, and native letters for Izhak
and Mohammad Ali. Owing to the jealousy of the frontier officers of
Efat, he had been subjected to many days of needless detention, during
which the king had led a distant military expedition; and although
compliments and assurances of welcome were not wanting, they were
coupled with the unsatisfactory intelligence that the party must trust
entirely to its own resources, as in the absence of His Majesty, no
assistance whatever could be rendered.
The rainy season having now fairly set in, it was believed that the
pools on the upper road would furnish a sufficient supply of water, and
the course was accordingly shaped towards it. Emerging upon the
extensive plain of Merihan, bounded to the westward by the lofty peaked
range of Feeoh, the route skirted the Bundoora hills, thickly clothed
with grass, and varying in height from six hundred to a thousand feet.
Wayess, the chief of the Woema, formerly held his head-quarters in this
neighbourhood, at Hagaio-dera-dubba; but the Eesah Somauli making
frequent inroads, and at last sweeping off all the cattle of the tribe,
it was abandoned. The hill ranges on both sides have sent lava streams
almost to the middle of the plain, but generally it is covered with a
fine light-coloured soil, strewn with volcanic ashes and small fragments
of obsidian--the grass, improved by the recent showers, having partially
acquired a greenish tint. A singular detached hill composed of
fresh-water limestone, contained a few impressions of small spiral
shells, whilst the surrounding rocks exhibit the usual cellular basalt.
No one could conceive that the rugged arid wastes whereon he trod, had
ever in themselves been either productive or populous. Saving the
labours of the termites, exhibited in endless mounds of vast dimensions,
no monument of industry redeems the inhospitable landscape; yet these
measureless plains, no less than the barren mountain ranges so lately
traversed, did formerly, as now they might, afford hordes of hardy
soldiers, that under a bold leader, such as the mighty Graan, who in the
sixteenth century unfurled the banner of the impostor, and at the head
of a countless army overran and nearly destroyed the Ethiopic empire,
were admirably adapted to possess themselves of the more fertile plains
and provinces adjoining. Whatever may have been the virtues and
endowments of these olden warriors, their posterity, like the dwellings
they inhabit, are sufficiently rude and degenerate.
Wady Bundoora, clothed in a thicket of verdant bushes, had been selected
as the halting ground, and its appearance promised a copious supply of
water; but every pool proved dry, and the march was therefore continued
to Madera-dubba--a second and similar ravine, which was confidently
expected to afford the desired element. Disappointment was however
again in store, and the rain not having extended thus far, the usual
reservoirs were referred to in vain. Worse than all, information was
here received that not a drop of water would be found at the next
station; whilst, owing to the wear and tear of skins, added to the too
confident anticipations indulged, barely a sufficient supply for even
one day accompanied the kafilah.
It had been determined under these untoward circumstances, to move on at
midnight; but after an insufferably hot day, rain again interfered.
Unfortunately it did not fall in sufficient quantities to be of much
utility; a few pints caught in tarpaulins, which, with all available
utensils, were placed for the reception of the precious fluid, proving
very inadequate to the wants of the thirsty party. At 3 a.m. the
caravan advanced down the valley, with cool refreshing weather, and a
fine moon shining brightly overhead. From the summit of a tumulus of
black lava, marking the point where the undulations of the Bundoora
hills trend towards the mountains of the Ittoo Galla, an extensive view
was obtained with the dawning day, over a country bearing the most
extraordinary volcanic character--huge craters on the one hand towering
to the clouds, whilst on the other sank the wide valley of Kordeite,
through which lay the high road to the desolate plains of Errur.
A few pools of muddy rain-water by the wayside were eagerly drained by
the sinking cattle, but a deep ravine, bordered with green trees and
bushes, was explored to no purpose; and after crossing the fine open
plain of Eyroluf, abounding in gazelles and swine, the road led round
the base of a remarkable cone, styled Jebel Helmund, which had long been
in view. Isolated, and four hundred feet in height, with a crater
opening to the north-eastward, which would seem at no very remote period
to have discontinued its eruption, it is surrounded by a broad belt of
lava, some three miles in diameter. This has formed towards the plain a
black scarped wall, rising from fifteen to twenty feet, of which the
wooded crevices teemed with quail, partridges, and guinea-fowl, and were
said to be so many great dens of lions.
The sultry afternoon was already far advanced, when the weary eye was
refreshed by a glimpse of the verdant plain of Sultelli, a perfectly
level expanse, so ingeniously overgrown with pale green vegetation as to
furnish an exact representation of a wide lake covered with floating
duckweed, around which numerous camels were busily browsing on the rank
herbage. During the greater part of the year, this plain presents one
vast and delightful sheet of water; but the fairy form of the
light-footed gazelle was presently seen bounding over the delusive
surface, and although clothed throughout with the most tantalising
verdure, it yet proved perfectly dry. The camels were milch females,
capable of subsisting for days, and even for weeks together, without
drinking, whilst their milk serves to quench the thirst of their
unwashed Bedouin attendants. Beedur, the chief of a section of the
Debeni, who resides in this spot during the rainy season, had long since
decamped with his clan to more distant pastures.
Every hollow in the rich black soil abounding with shells, was vainly
explored; and after a seventeen mile march, the party, weary and
thirsty, were fain to encamp on the opposite side, and giving up the
search as fruitless, to rest satisfied with the nauseous contents of
water-skins filled at the putrid pools of Meinha-tolli--a second, and if
possible, a worse edition of the impurities brewed at the Salt Lake.
Both amongst men and cattle the utmost distress prevailed. A
suffocating blast blew incessantly, heat the most intense was reflected
from the adjacent black rocks; and nearly all of the horses and mules
were so completely exhausted that there appeared no prospect of dragging
them other sixteen miles to the nearest reservoir.
But towards midnight the beneficent flood-gates of Heaven were
providentially opened, and a violent storm bursting over the camp, in
less than half an hour filled every ravine and hollow to overflowing,
and afforded a plentiful and truly seasonable, although transient,
supply. Tearing up their pickets from the saturated soil, the dying
animals thrust into the turbid stream that rolled through the encampment
their hot noses, which for two entire days and nights had been strangers
to moisture, and filled their sunken flanks almost to bursting.
Cackling troops of guinea-fowl flocked to the pools from the adjacent
heights. Embankments were thrown up, and wells excavated; and European,
Danakil, and camp-follower--Christian, Moslem, and Hindoo--all drenched
to the skin, falling together upon their knees in the posture of
thanksgiving, sucked down the first copious draught of palatable water
that had been enjoyed since leaving Fialoo.
Volume One, Chapter XXX.