The Rer or Kraal [21] is a line of scattered huts on plains where thorns
are rare, beast of prey scarce, and raids not expected. In the hills it is
surrounded by a strong fence to prevent cattle straying: this, where
danger induces caution, is doubled and trebled. Yet the lion will
sometimes break through it, and the leopard clears it, prey in mouth with
a bound. The abattis has usually four entrances which are choked up with
heaps of bushes at night. The interior space is partitioned off by dwarf
hedges into rings, which contain and separate the different species of
cattle. Sometimes there is an outer compartment adjoining the exterior
fence, set apart for the camels; usually they are placed in the centre of
the kraal. Horses being most valuable are side-lined and tethered close to
the owner's hut, and rude bowers of brush and fire wood protect the
weaklings of the flocks from the heat of the sun and the inclement night
breeze.
At intervals around and inside the outer abattis are built the Gurgi or
wigwams--hemispheric huts like old bee-hives about five feet high by six
in diameter: they are even smaller in the warm regions, but they increase
in size as the elevation of the country renders climate less genial. The
material is a framework of "Digo," or sticks bent and hardened in the
fire: to build the hut, these are planted in the ground, tied together
with cords, and covered with mats of two different kinds: the Aus composed
of small bundles of grass neatly joined, is hard and smooth; the Kibid has
a long pile and is used as couch as well as roof. The single entrance in
front is provided with one of these articles which serves as a curtain;
hides are spread upon the top during the monsoon, and little heaps of
earth are sometimes raised outside to keep out wind and rain.
The furniture is simple as the building. Three stones and a hole form the
fireplace, near which sleep the children, kids, and lambs: there being no
chimney, the interior is black with soot. The cow-skin couches are
suspended during the day, like arms and other articles which suffer from
rats and white ants, by loops of cord to the sides. The principal
ornaments are basket-work bottles, gaily adorned with beads, cowris, and
stained leather. Pottery being here unknown, the Bedouins twist the fibres
of a root into various shapes, and make them water-tight with the powdered
bark of another tree. [22] The Han is a large wicker-work bucket, mounted
in a framework of sticks, and used to contain water on journeys. The Guraf
(a word derived from the Arabic "Ghurfah") is a conical-shaped vessel,
used to bale out the contents of a well. The Del, or milk pail, is shaped
like two cones joined at the base by lateral thongs, the upper and smaller
half acting as cup and cover. And finally the Wesi, or water bottle,
contains the traveller's store for drinking and religious ablution.
When the kraal is to be removed, the huts and furniture are placed upon
the camels, and the hedges and earth are sometimes set on fire, to purify
the place and deceive enemies, Throughout the country black circles of
cinders or thorn diversify the hill sides, and show an extensive
population. Travellers always seek deserted kraals for security of
encampment. As they swarm with vermin by night and flies by day [23], I
frequently made strong objections to these favourite localities: the
utmost conceded to me was a fresh enclosure added by a smaller hedge to
the outside abattis of the more populous cow-kraals.
On the 10th December we halted: the bad water, the noon-day sun of 107°,
and the cold mornings--51° being the average--had seriously affected my
health. All the population flocked to see me, darkening the hut with
nodding wigs and staring faces: and,--the Gudabirsi are polite knaves,--
apologised for the intrusion. Men, women, and children appeared in crowds,
bringing milk and ghee, meat and water, several of the elders remembered
having seen me at Berberah [24], and the blear-eyed maidens, who were in
no wise shy, insisted upon admiring the white stranger.
Feeling somewhat restored by repose, I started the next day, "with a tail
on" to inspect the ruins of Aububah. After a rough ride over stony ground
we arrived at a grassy hollow, near a line of hills, and dismounted to
visit the Shaykh Aububah's remains. He rests under a little conical dome
of brick, clay and wood, similar in construction to that of Zayla: it is
falling to pieces, and the adjoining mosque, long roofless, is overgrown
with trees, that rustle melancholy sounds in the light joyous breeze.
Creeping in by a dwarf door or rather hole, my Gudabirsi guides showed me
a bright object forming the key of the arch: as it shone they suspected
silver, and the End of Time whispered a sacrilegious plan for purloining
it. Inside the vault were three graves apparently empty, and upon the dark
sunken floor lay several rounded stones, resembling cannon balls, and used
as weights by the more civilised Somal. Thence we proceeded to the battle-
field, a broad sheet of sandstone, apparently dinted by the hoofs of mules
and horses: on this ground, which, according to my guides, was in olden
days soft and yielding, took place the great action between Aububah and
Darbiyah Kola. A second mosque was found with walls in tolerable repair,
but, like the rest of the place, roofless. Long Guled ascended the broken
staircase of a small square minaret, and delivered a most ignorant and
Bedouin-like Azan or call to prayer. Passing by the shells of houses, we
concluded our morning's work with a visit to the large graveyard.
Apparently it did not contain the bones of Moslems: long lines of stones
pointed westward, and one tomb was covered with a coating of hard mortar,
in whose sculptured edge my benighted friends detected magical
inscriptions. I heard of another city called Ahammed in the neighbouring
hills, but did not visit it. These are all remains of Galla settlements,
which the ignorance and exaggeration of the Somal fill with "writings" and
splendid edifices.
Returning home we found that our Gudabirsi Bedouins had at length obeyed
the summons. The six sons of a noted chief, Ali Addah or White Ali, by
three different mothers, Beuh, Igah, Khayri, Nur, Ismail and Yunis, all
advanced towards me as I dismounted, gave the hand of friendship, and
welcomed me to their homes. With the exception of the first-named, a hard-
featured man at least forty years old, the brothers were good-looking
youths, with clear brown skins, regular features, and graceful figures.
They entered the Gurgi when invited, but refused to eat, saying, that they
came for honor not for food. The Hajj Sharmarkay's introductory letter was
read aloud to their extreme delight, and at their solicitation, I perused
it a second and a third time; then having dismissed with sundry small
presents, the two Abbans Raghe and Rirash, I wrote a flattering account of
them to the Hajj, and entrusted it to certain citizens who were returning
in caravan Zayla-wards, after a commercial tour in the interior.
Before they departed, there was a feast after the Homeric fashion. A sheep
was "cut," disembowelled, dismembered, tossed into one of our huge
caldrons, and devoured within the hour: the almost live food [25] was
washed down with huge draughts of milk. The feasters resembled
Wordsworth's cows, "forty feeding like one:" in the left hand they held
the meat to their teeth, and cut off the slice in possession with long
daggers perilously close, were their noses longer and their mouths less
obtrusive. During the dinner I escaped from the place of flies, and
retired to a favourite tree. Here the End of Time, seeing me still in
pain, insisted upon trying a Somali medicine. He cut two pieces of dry
wood, scooped a hole in the shorter, and sharpened the longer, applied
point to socket, which he sprinkled with a little sand, placed his foot
upon the "female stick," and rubbed the other between his palms till smoke
and char appeared. He then cauterized my stomach vigorously in six
different places, quoting a tradition, "the End of Physic is Fire."
On Tuesday the 12th December, I vainly requested the two sons of White
Ali, who had constituted themselves our guides, to mount their horses:
they feared to fatigue the valuable animals at a season when grass is rare
and dry. I was disappointed by seeing the boasted "Faras" [26] of the
Somal, in the shape of ponies hardly thirteen hands high. The head is
pretty, the eyes are well opened, and the ears are small; the form also is
good, but the original Arab breed has degenerated in the new climate. They
are soft, docile, and--like all other animals in this part of the world--
timid: the habit of climbing rocks makes them sure-footed, and they show
the remains of blood when forced to fatigue. The Gudabirsi will seldom
sell these horses, the great safeguard against their conterminous tribes,
the Eesa and Girhi, who are all infantry: a village seldom contains more
than six or eight, and the lowest value would be ten cows or twenty Tobes.
[27] Careful of his beast when at rest, the Somali Bedouin in the saddle
is rough and cruel: whatever beauty the animal may possess in youth,
completely disappears before the fifth year, and few are without spavin,
or sprained back-sinews. In some parts of the country [28], "to ride
violently to your hut two or three times before finally dismounting, is
considered a great compliment, and the same ceremony is observed on
leaving. Springing into the saddle (if he has one), with the aid of his
spear, the Somali cavalier first endeavours to infuse a little spirit into
his half-starved hack, by persuading him to accomplish a few plunges and
capers: then, his heels raining a hurricane of blows against the animal's
ribs, and occasionally using his spear-point as a spur, away he gallops,
and after a short circuit, in which he endeavours to show himself to the
best advantage, returns to his starting point at full speed, when the
heavy Arab bit brings up the blown horse with a shock that half breaks his
jaw and fills his mouth with blood. The affection of the true Arab for his
horse is proverbial: the cruelty of the Somal to his, may, I think, be
considered equally so." The Bedouins practise horse-racing, and run for
bets, which are contested with ardor: on solemn occasions, they have rude
equestrian games, in which they display themselves and their animals. The
Gudabirsi, and indeed most of the Somal, sit loosely upon their horses.
Their saddle is a demi-pique, a high-backed wooden frame, like the
Egyptian fellah's: two light splinters leave a clear space for the spine,
and the tree is tightly bound with wet thongs: a sheepskin shabracque is
loosely spread over it, and the dwarf iron stirrup admits only the big
toe, as these people fear a stirrup which, if the horse fall, would
entangle the foot. Their bits are cruelly severe; a solid iron ring, as in
the Arab bridle, embracing the lower jaw, takes the place of a curb chain.
Some of the head-stalls, made at Berberah, are prettily made of cut
leather and bright steel ornaments like diminutive quoits. The whip is a
hard hide handle, plated with zinc, and armed with a single short broad
thong.
With the two sons of White Ali and the End of Time, at 8 A.M., on the 12th
December, I rode forward, leaving the jaded camels in charge of my
companions and the women. We crossed the plain in a south-westerly
direction, and after traversing rolling ground, we came to a ridge, which
commanded an extensive view. Behind lay the Wanauli Hills, already purple
in the distance. On our left was a mass of cones, each dignified by its
own name; no one, it is said, can ascend them, which probably means that
it would be a fatiguing walk. Here are the visitation-places of three
celebrated saints, Amud, Sau and Shaykh Sharlagamadi, or the "Hidden from
Evil," To the north-west I was shown some blue peaks tenanted by the Eesa
Somal. In front, backed by the dark hills of Harar, lay the Harawwah
valley. The breadth is about fifteen miles: it runs from south-west to
north-east, between the Highlands of the Girhi and the rolling ground of
the Gudabirsi Somal, as far, it is said, as the Dankali country. Of old
this luxuriant waste belonged to the former tribe; about twelve years ago
it was taken from them by the Gudabirsi, who carried off at the same time
thirty cows, forty camels, and between three and four hundred sheep and
goats.
Large herds tended by spearmen and grazing about the bush, warned us that
we were approaching the kraal in which the sons of White Ali were camped;
at half-past 10 A.M., after riding eight miles, we reached the place which
occupies the lower slope of the Northern Hills that enclose the Harawwah
valley. We spread our hides under a tree, and were soon surrounded by
Bedouins, who brought milk, sun-dried beef, ghee and honey in one of the
painted wooden bowls exported from Cutch. After breakfast, at which the
End of Time distinguished himself by dipping his meat into honey, we went
out gun in hand towards the bush. It swarmed with sand-antelope and
Gurnuk: the ground-squirrels haunted every ant-hill, hoopoos and spur-
fowls paced among the thickets, in the trees we heard the frequent cry of
the Gobiyan and the bird facetiously termed from its cry "Dobo-dogon-
guswen," and the bright-coloured hawk, the Abodi or Bakiyyah [29], lay on
wing high in the cloudless air.
When tired of killing we returned to our cow-hides, and sat in
conversation with the Bedouins. They boasted of the skill with which they
used the shield, and seemed not to understand the efficiency of a sword-
parry: to illustrate the novel idea I gave a stick to the best man,
provided myself in the same way, and allowed him to cut at me. After
repeated failures he received a sounding blow upon the least bony portion
of his person: the crowd laughed long and loud, and the pretending
"knight-at-arms" retired in confusion.
Darkness fell, but no caravan appeared: it had been delayed by a runaway
mule,--perhaps by the desire to restrain my vagrant propensities,--and did
not arrive till midnight. My hosts cleared a Gurgi for our reception,
brought us milk, and extended their hospitality to the full limits of even
savage complaisance.
Expecting to march on the 13th December soon after dawn, I summoned Beuh
and his brethren to the hut, reminding him that the Hajj had promised me
an escort without delay to the village of the Gerad Adan. To my instances
they replied that, although they were most anxious to oblige, the arrival
of Mudeh the eldest son rendered a consultation necessary; and retiring to
the woods, sat in palaver from 8 A.M. to past noon. At last they came to a
resolution which could not be shaken. They would not trust one of their
number in the Gerad's country; a horseman, however, should carry a letter
inviting the Girhi chief to visit his brothers-in-law. I was assured that
Adan would not drink water before mounting to meet us: but, fear is
reciprocal, there was evidently bad blood between them, and already a
knowledge of Somali customs caused me to suspect the result of our
mission. However, a letter was written reminding the Gerad of "the word
spoken under the tree," and containing, in case of recusance, a threat to
cut off the salt well at which his cows are periodically driven to drink.
Then came the bargain for safe conduct. After much haggling, especially on
the part of the handsome Igah, they agreed to receive twenty Tobes, three
bundles of tobacco, and fourteen cubits of indigo-dyed cotton. In addition
to this I offered as a bribe one of my handsome Abyssinian shirts with a
fine silk fringe made at Aden, to be received by the man Beuh on the day
of entering the Gerad's village.
I arose early in the next morning, having been promised by the Abbans
grand sport in the Harawwah Valley. The Somal had already divided the
elephants' spoils: they were to claim the hero's feather, I was to receive
two thirds of the ivory--nothing remained to be done but the killing.
After sundry pretences and prayers for delay, Beuh saddled his hack, the
Hammal mounted one mule, a stout-hearted Bedouin called Fahi took a
second, and we started to find the herds. The End of Time lagged in the
rear: the reflection that a mule cannot outrun an elephant, made him look
so ineffably miserable, that I sent him back to the kraal. "Dost thou
believe me to be a coward, 0 Pilgrim?" thereupon exclaimed the Mullah,
waxing bold in the very joy of his heart. "Of a truth I do!" was my reply.
Nothing abashed, he hammered his mule with heel, and departed ejaculating,
"What hath man but a single life? and he who throweth it away, what is he
but a fool?" Then we advanced with cocked guns, Beuh singing, Boanerges-
like, the Song of the Elephant.
In the Somali country, as amongst the Kafirs, after murdering a man or
boy, the death of an elephant is considered _the_ act of heroism: most
tribes wear for it the hair-feather and the ivory bracelet. Some hunters,
like the Bushmen of the Cape [30], kill the Titan of the forests with
barbed darts carrying Waba-poison. The general way of hunting resembles
that of the Abyssinian Agageers described by Bruce. One man mounts a white
pony, and galloping before the elephant, induces him, as he readily does,
--firearms being unknown,--to charge and "chivy." The rider directs his
course along, and close to, some bush, where a comrade is concealed; and
the latter, as the animal passes at speed, cuts the back sinew of the hind
leg, where in the human subject the tendon Achilles would be, with a
sharp, broad and heavy knife. [31] This wound at first occasions little
inconvenience: presently the elephant, fancying, it is supposed, that a
thorn has stuck in his foot, stamps violently, and rubs the scratch till
the sinew is fairly divided. The animal, thus disabled, is left to perish
wretchedly of hunger and thirst: the tail, as amongst the Kafirs, is cut
off to serve as trophy, and the ivories are removed when loosened by
decomposition. In this part of Africa the elephant is never tamed. [32]
For six hours we rode the breadth of the Harawwah Valley: it was covered
with wild vegetation, and surface-drains, that carry off the surplus of
the hills enclosing it. In some places the torrent beds had cut twenty
feet into the soil. The banks were fringed with milk-bush and Asclepias,
the Armo-creeper, a variety of thorns, and especially the yellow-berried
Jujube: here numberless birds followed bright-winged butterflies, and the
"Shaykhs of the Blind," as the people call the black fly, settled in
swarms upon our hands and faces as we rode by. The higher ground was
overgrown with a kind of cactus, which here becomes a tree, forming shady
avenues. Its quadrangular fleshy branches of emerald green, sometimes
forty feet high, support upon their summits large round bunches of a
bright crimson berry: when the plantation is close, domes of extreme
beauty appear scattered over the surface of the country. This "Hassadin"
abounds in burning milk, and the Somal look downwards when passing under
its branches: the elephant is said to love it, and in many places the
trees were torn to pieces by hungry trunks. The nearest approaches to game
were the last year's earths; likely places, however, shady trees and green
thorns near water, were by no means uncommon. When we reached the valley's
southern wall, Beuh informed us that we might ride all day, if we pleased,
with the same result. At Zayla I had been informed that elephants are
"thick as sand" in Harawwah: even the Gudabirsi, when at a distance,
declared that they fed there like sheep, and, after our failure, swore
that they killed thirty but last year. The animals were probably in the
high Harirah Valley, and would be driven downwards by the cold at a later
period: some future Gordon Cumming may therefore succeed where the Hajj
Abdullah notably failed.
On the 15th December I persuaded the valiant Beuh, with his two brothers
and his bluff cousin Fahi, to cross the valley with us, After recovering a
mule which had strayed five miles back to the well, and composing sundry
quarrels between Shehrazade, whose swains had detained her from camel-
loading, and the Kalendar whose one eye flashed with indignation at her
conduct, we set out in a southerly direction. An hour's march brought us
to an open space surrounded by thin thorn forest: in the centre is an
ancient grave, about which are performed the equestrian games when the
turban of the Ugaz has been bound under the Holy Tree. Shepherds issued
from the bush to stare at us as we passed, and stretched forth the hand
for "Bori:" the maidens tripped forwards exclaiming, "Come, girls, let us
look at this prodigy!" and they never withheld an answer if civilly
addressed. Many of them were grown up, and not a few were old maids, the
result of the tribe's isolation; for here, as in Somaliland generally, the
union of cousins is abhorred. The ground of the valley is a stiff clay,
sprinkled with pebbles of primitive formation: the hills are mere rocks,
and the torrent banks with strata of small stones, showed a watermark
varying from ten to fifteen feet in height: in these Fiumaras we saw
frequent traces of the Edler-game, deer and hog. At 1 P.M. our camels and
mules were watered at wells in a broad wady called Jannah-Gaban or the
Little Garden; its course, I was told, lies northwards through the
Harawwah Valley to the Odla and Waruf, two depressions in the Wayma
country near Tajurrah. About half an hour afterwards we arrived at a
deserted sheepfold distant six miles from our last station. After
unloading we repaired to a neighbouring well, and found the water so hard
that it raised lumps like nettle stings in the bather's skin. The only
remedy for the evil is an unguent of oil or butter, a precaution which
should never be neglected by the African traveller. At first the sensation
of grease annoys, after a few days it is forgotten, and at last the "pat
of butter" is expected as pleasantly as the pipe or the cup of coffee. It
prevents the skin from chaps and sores, obviates the evil effects of heat,
cold, and wet, and neutralises the Proteus-like malaria poison. The Somal
never fail to anoint themselves when they can afford ghee, and the Bedouin
is at the summit of his bliss, when sitting in the blazing sun, or,--heat
acts upon these people as upon serpents,--with his back opposite a roaring
fire, he is being smeared, rubbed, and kneaded by a companion.
My guides, fearing lions and hyenas, would pass the night inside a foul
sheepfold: I was not without difficulty persuaded to join them. At eight
next morning we set out through an uninteresting thorn-bush towards one of
those Tetes or isolated hills which form admirable bench-marks in the
Somali country. "Koralay," a terra corresponding with our Saddle-back,
exactly describes its shape: pommel and crupper, in the shape of two huge
granite boulders, were all complete, and between them was a depression for
a seat. As day advanced the temperature changed from 50° to a maximum of
121°. After marching about five miles, we halted in a broad watercourse
called Gallajab, the "Plentiful Water": there we bathed, and dined on an
excellent camel which had broken its leg by falling from a bank.
Resuming our march at 5 P.M., we travelled over ascending ground which
must be most fertile after rain: formerly it belonged to the Girhi, and
the Gudabirsi boasted loudly of their conquest. After an hour's march we
reached the base of Koralay, upon whose lower slopes appeared a pair of
the antelopes called Alakud [33]: they are tame, easily shot, and eagerly
eaten by the Bedouins. Another hour of slow travelling brought us to a
broad Fiumara with high banks of stiff clay thickly wooded and showing a
water-mark eighteen feet above the sand. The guides named these wells
Agjogsi, probably a generic term signifying that water is standing close
by. Crossing the Fiumara we ascended a hill, and found upon the summit a
large kraal alive with heads of kine. The inhabitants flocked out to stare
at us and the women uttered cries of wonder. I advanced towards the
prettiest, and fired my rifle by way of salute over her head. The people
delighted, exclaimed, Mod! Mod!--"Honor to thee!"--and we replied with
shouts of Kulliban--"May Heaven aid ye!" [34] At 5 P.M., after five miles'
march, the camels were unloaded in a deserted kraal whose high fence
denoted danger of wild beasts. The cowherds bade us beware of lions: but a
day before a girl had been dragged out of her hut, and Moslem burial could
be given to only one of her legs. A Bedouin named Uddao, whom we hired as
mule-keeper, was ordered to spend the night singing, and, as is customary
with Somali watchmen, to address and answer himself dialogue-wise with a
different voice, in order to persuade thieves that several men are on the
alert. He was a spectacle of wildness as he sat before the blazing fire,--
his joy by day, his companion and protector in the shades, the only step
made by him in advance of his brethren the Cynocephali.
We were detained four days at Agjogsi by the nonappearance of the Gerad
Adan: this delay gave me an opportunity of ascending to the summit of
Koralay the Saddleback, which lay about a mile north of our encampment. As
we threaded the rocks and hollows of the side we came upon dens strewed
with cows' bones, and proving by a fresh taint that the tenants had lately
quitted them. In this country the lion is seldom seen unless surprised
asleep in his lair of thicket: during my journey, although at times the
roaring was heard all night, I saw but one. The people have a superstition
that the king of beasts will not attack a single traveller, because such a
person, they say, slew the mother of all the lions: except in darkness or
during violent storms, which excite the fiercer carnivors, he is a timid
animal, much less feared by the people than the angry and agile leopard.
Unable to run with rapidity when pressed by hunger, he pursues a party of
travellers stealthily as a cat, and, arrived within distance, springs,
strikes down the hindermost, and carries him away to the bush.
From the summit of Koralay, we had a fair view of the surrounding country.
At least forty kraals, many of them deserted, lay within the range of
sight. On all sides except the north-west and south-east was a mass of
sombre rock and granite hill: the course of the valleys between the
several ranges was denoted by a lively green, and the plains scattered in
patches over the landscape shone with dull yellow, the effect of clay and
stubble, whilst a light mist encased the prospect in a circlet of blue and
silver. Here the End of Time conceived the jocose idea of crowning me king
of the country. With loud cries of Buh! Buh! Buh! he showered leaves of a
gum tree and a little water from a prayer bottle over my head, and then
with all solemnity bound on the turban. [35] It is perhaps fortunate that
this facetiousness was not witnessed: a crowd of Bedouins assembled below
the hill, suspecting as usual some magical practices, and, had they known
the truth, our journey might have ended abruptly. Descending, I found
porcupines' quills in abundance [36], and shot a rock pigeon called Elal-
jog--the "Dweller at wells." At the foot a "Baune" or Hyrax Abyssinicus,
resembling the Coney of Palestine [37], was observed at its favourite
pastime of sunning itself upon the rocks.
On the evening of the 20th December the mounted messenger returned, after
a six hours' hard ride, bringing back unopened the letter addressed by me
to the Gerad, and a private message from their sister to the sons of White
Ali, advising them not to advance. Ensued terrible palavers. It appeared
that the Gerad was upon the point of mounting horse, when his subjects
swore him to remain and settle a dispute with the Amir of Harar. Our
Abbans, however, withdrew their hired camels, positively refuse to
accompany us, and Beuh privily informed the End of Time that I had
acquired through the land the evil reputation of killing everything, from
an elephant to a bird in the air. One of the younger brethren, indeed,
declared that we were forerunners of good, and that if the Gerad harmed a
hair of our heads, he would slaughter every Girhi under the sun. We had,
however, learned properly to appreciate such vaunts, and the End of Time
drily answered that their sayings were honey but their doings myrrh. Being
a low-caste and a shameless tribe, they did not reply to our reproaches.
At last, a manoeuvre was successful: Beuh and his brethren, who squatted
like sulky children in different places, were dismissed with thanks,--we
proposed placing ourselves under the safeguard of Gerad Hirsi, the Berteri
chief. This would have thrown the protection-price, originally intended
for their brother-in-law, into the hands of a rival, and had the effect of
altering their resolve. Presently we were visited by two Widad or hedge-
priests, Ao Samattar and Ao Nur [38], both half-witted fellows, but active
and kindhearted. The former wore a dirty turban, the latter a Zebid cap, a
wicker-work calotte, composed of the palm leaf's mid-rib: they carried
dressed goatskins, as prayer carpets, over their right shoulders dangled
huge wooden ink bottles with Lauh or wooden tablets for writing talismans
[39], and from the left hung a greasy bag, containing a tattered copy of
the Koran and a small MS. of prayers. They read tolerably, but did not
understand Arabic, and I presented them with cheap Bombay lithographs of
the Holy Book. The number of these idlers increased as we approached
Harar, the Alma Mater of Somali land:--the people seldom listen to their
advice, but on this occasion Ao Samattar succeeded in persuading the
valiant Beuh that the danger was visionary. Soon afterwards rode up to our
kraal three cavaliers, who proved to be sons of Adam, the future Ugaz of
the Gudabirsi tribe: this chief had fully recognized the benefits of
reopening to commerce a highway closed by their petty feuds, and sent to
say that, in consequence of his esteem for the Hajj Sharmarkay, if the
sons of White Ali feared to escort us, he in person would do the deed.
Thereupon Beuh became a "Gesi" or hero, as the End of Time ironically
called him: he sent back his brethren with their horses and camels, and
valorously prepared to act as our escort. I tauntingly asked him what he
now thought of the danger. For all reply he repeated the words, with which
the Bedouins--who, like the Arabs, have a holy horror of towns--had been
dinning daily into my ears, "They will spoil that white skin of thine at
Harar!"
At 3 P.M., on the 21st December, we started in a westerly direction
through a gap in the hills, and presently turned to the south-west, over
rapidly rising ground, thickly inhabited, and covered with flocks and
herds. About 5 P.M., after marching two miles, we raised our wigwam
outside a populous kraal, a sheep was provided by the hospitality of Ao
Samattar, and we sat deep into the night enjoying a genial blaze.
Early the next morning we had hoped to advance: water, however, was
wanting, and a small caravan was slowly gathering;--these details delayed
us till 4 P.M. Our line lay westward, over rising ground, towards a
conspicuous conical hill called Konti. Nothing could be worse for camels
than the rough ridges at the foot of the mountain, full of thickets, cut
by deep Fiumaras, and abounding in dangerous watercourses: the burdens
slipped now backwards then forwards, sometimes the load was almost dragged
off by thorns, and at last we were obliged to leave one animal to follow
slowly in the rear. After creeping on two miles, we bivouacked in a
deserted cow-kraal,--_sub dio_, as it was warm under the hills. That
evening our party was increased by a Gudabirsi maiden in search of a
husband: she was surlily received by Shehrazade and Deenarzade, but we
insisted upon her being fed, and superintended the operation. Her style of
eating was peculiar; she licked up the rice from the hollow of her hand.
Next morning she was carried away in our absence, greatly against her
will, by some kinsmen who had followed her.
And now, bidding adieu to the Gudabirsi, I will briefly sketch the tribe.
The Gudabirsi, or Gudabursi, derive themselves from Dir and Aydur, thus
claiming affinity with the Eesa: others declare their tribe to be an
offshoot from the Bahgoba clan of the Habr Awal, originally settled near
Jebel Almis, and Bulhar, on the sea-shore. The Somal unhesitatingly
stigmatize them as a bastard and ignoble race: a noted genealogist once
informed me, that they were little better than Midgans or serviles. Their
ancestors' mother, it is said, could not name the father of her child:
some proposed to slay it, others advocated its preservation, saying,
"Perhaps we shall increase by it!" Hence the name of the tribe. [40]
The Gudabirsi are such inveterate liars that I could fix for them no
number between 3000 and 10,000. They own the rough and rolling ground
diversified with thorny hill and grassy vale, above the first or seaward
range of mountains; and they have extended their lands by conquest towards
Harar, being now bounded in that direction by the Marar Prairie. As usual,
they are subdivided into a multitude of clans. [41]
In appearance the Gudabirsi are decidedly superior to their limitrophes
the Eesa. I have seen handsome faces amongst the men as well as the women.
Some approach closely to the Caucasian type: one old man, with olive-
coloured skin, bald brow, and white hair curling round his temples, and
occiput, exactly resembled an Anglo-Indian veteran. Generally, however,
the prognathous mouth betrays an African origin, and chewing tobacco mixed
with ashes stains the teeth, blackens the gums, and mottles the lips. The
complexion is the Abyssinian _cafe au lait_, contrasting strongly with the
sooty skins of the coast; and the hair, plentifully anointed with rancid
butter, hangs from the head in lank corkscrews the colour of a Russian
pointer's coat. The figure is rather squat, but broad and well set.
The Gudabirsi are as turbulent and unmanageable, though not so
bloodthirsty, as the Eesa. Their late chief, Ugaz Roblay of the Bait
Samattar sept, left children who could not hold their own: the turban was
at once claimed by a rival branch, the Rer Abdillah, and a civil war
ensued. The lovers of legitimacy will rejoice to hear that when I left the
country, Galla, son of the former Prince Rainy, was likely to come to his
own again.
The stranger's life is comparatively safe amongst this tribe: as long as
he feeds and fees them, he may even walk about unarmed. They are, however,
liars even amongst the Somal, Bobadils amongst boasters, inveterate
thieves, and importunate beggars. The smooth-spoken fellows seldom betray
emotion except when cloth or tobacco is concerned; "dissimulation is as
natural to them as breathing," and I have called one of their chiefs "dog"
without exciting his indignation.
The commerce of these wild regions is at present in a depressed state:
were the road safe, traffic with the coast would be considerable. The
profit on hides, for instance, at Aden, would be at least cent. per cent.:
the way, however, is dangerous, and detention is frequent, consequently
the gain will not remunerate for risk and loss of time. No operation can
be undertaken in a hurry, consequently demand cannot readily be supplied.
What Laing applies to Western, may be repeated of Eastern Africa: "the
endeavour to accelerate an undertaking is almost certain to occasion its
failure." Nowhere is patience more wanted, in order to perform perfect
work. The wealth of the Gudabirsi consists principally in cattle,
peltries, hides, gums, and ghee. The asses are dun-coloured, small, and
weak; the camels large, loose, and lazy; the cows are pretty animals, with
small humps, long horns, resembling the Damara cattle, and in the grazing
season with plump, well-rounded limbs; there is also a bigger breed, not
unlike that of Tuscany. The standard is the Tobe of coarse canvass; worth
about three shillings at Aden, here it doubles in value. The price of a
good camel varies from six to eight cloths; one Tobe buys a two-year-old
heifer, three, a cow between three and four years old. A ewe costs half a
cloth: the goat, although the flesh is according to the Somal nutritive,
whilst "mutton is disease," is a little cheaper than the sheep. Hides and
peltries are usually collected at and exported from Harar; on the coast
they are rubbed over with salt, and in this state carried to Aden. Cows'
skins fetch a quarter of a dollar, or about one shilling in cloth, and two
dollars are the extreme price for the Kurjah or score of goats' skins. The
people of the interior have a rude way of tanning [42]; they macerate the
hide, dress, and stain it of a deep calf-skin colour with the bark of a
tree called Jirmah, and lastly the leather is softened with the hand. The
principal gum is the Adad, or Acacia Arabica: foreign merchants purchase
it for about half a dollar per Farasilah of twenty pounds: cow's and
sheep's butter may fetch a dollar's worth of cloth for the measure of
thirty-two pounds. This great article of commerce is good and pure in the
country, whereas at Berberah, the Habr Awal adulterate it, previous to
exportation, with melted sheep's tails.
The principal wants of the country which we have traversed are coarse
cotton cloth, Surat tobacco, beads, and indigo-dyed stuffs for women's
coifs. The people would also be grateful for any improvement in their
breed of horses, and when at Aden I thought of taking with me some old
Arab stallions as presents to chiefs. Fortunately the project fell to the
ground: a strange horse of unusual size or beauty, in these regions, would
be stolen at the end of the first march.