The Morning Cold Greatly Increased, And We Did Not Start Till 8 A.M. After
Half An Hour's March Up
The bed of a fiumara, leading apparently to a _cul
de sac_ of lofty rocks in the hills, we quitted
It for a rude zig-zag
winding along its left side, amongst bushes, thorn trees, and huge rocks.
The walls of the opposite bank were strikingly perpendicular; in some
places stratified, in others solid and polished by the course of stream
and cascade. The principal material was a granite, so coarse, that the
composing mica, quartz, and felspar separated into detached pieces as
large as a man's thumb; micaceous grit, which glittered in the sunbeams,
and various sandstones, abounded. The road caused us some trouble; the
camels' loads were always slipping from their mats; I found it necessary
to dismount from my mule, and, sitting down, we were stung by the large
black ants which infest these hills. [13]
About half way up, we passed two cairns, and added to them our mite like
good Somal. After two hours of hard work the summit of this primitive pass
was attained, and sixty minutes more saw us on the plateau above the
hills,--the second zone of East Africa. Behind us lay the plains, of which
we vainly sought a view: the broken ground at the foot of the mountains is
broad, and mists veiled the reeking expanse of the low country. [14] The
plateau in front of us was a wide extent of rolling ground, rising
slightly towards the west; its colour was brown with a threadbare coat of
verdure, and at the bottom of each rugged slope ran a stony water-course
trending from south-west to north-east. The mass of tangled aloes, ragged
thorn, and prim-looking poison trees, [15] must once have been populous;
tombs and houses of the early Moslems covered with ruins the hills and
ridges.
About noon, we arrived at a spot called the Kafir's Grave. It is a square
enceinte of rude stones about one hundred yards each side; and legends say
that one Misr, a Galla chief, when dying, ordered the place to be filled
seven times with she-camels destined for his Ahan or funeral feast. This
is the fourth stage upon the direct road from Zayla to Harar: we had
wasted ten days, and the want of grass and water made us anxious about our
animals. The camels could scarcely walk, and my mule's spine rose high
beneath the Arab pad:--such are the effects of Jilal [16], the worst of
travelling seasons in Eastern Africa.
At 1 P.M. we unloaded under a sycamore tree, called, after a Galla
chieftain [17], "Halimalah," and giving its name to the surrounding
valley. This ancient of the forest is more than half decayed, several huge
limbs lie stretched upon the ground, whence, for reverence, no one removes
them: upon the trunk, or rather trunks, for its bifurcates, are marks
deeply cut by a former race, and Time has hollowed in the larger stem an
arbour capable of containing half-a-dozen men.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 100 of 249
Words from 51308 to 51828
of 128411
