Hais Exports To Aden, Mocha, And
Other Parts Of Arabia; It Also Manufactures Mats, With The Leaves Of The
Daum Palm And Other Trees.
Lieutenant Speke was well received by one Ali,
the Agil, or petty chief of the place:
He presented two sheep to the
traveller. On the way from Bunder Jedid to Las Kuray, Lieutenant Speke
remarks that Las Galwayta would be a favourable site for a Somali
settlement. The water is deep even close to the shore, and there is an
easy ascent from it to the summit of the mountains. The consequence is
that it is coveted by the Warsingali, who are opposed by the present
proprietors, the Habr Gerhajis. The Sultan of the former family resists
any settlement for fear of dividing and weakening their force; it is too
far from their pastures, and they have not men enough for both purposes.
_28th October_.--Lieutenant Speke landed at Kurayat, near Las Kuray, and
sent a messenger to summon the chief, Mohammed Ali, Gerad or Prince of the
Warsingali tribe.
During a halt of twenty-one days, the traveller had an opportunity of
being initiated into the mysteries of Somali medicine and money hiding.
The people have but two cures for disease, one the actual cautery, the
other a purgative, by means of melted sheep's-tail, followed by such a
draught of camel's milk that the stomach, having escaped the danger of
bursting, is suddenly and completely relieved. It is here the custom of
the wealthy to bury their hoards, and to reveal the secret only when at
the point of death. Lieutenant Speke went to a place where it is said a
rich man had deposited a considerable sum, and described his "cache" as
being "on a path in a direct line between two trees as far as the arms can
reach with a stick." The hoarder died between forty and fifty years ago,
and his children have been prevented by the rocky nature of the ground,
and their forgetting to ask which was the right side of the tree, from
succeeding in anything beyond turning up the stones.
Las Kuray is an open roadstead for native craft. The town is considered
one of the principal strongholds of the coast. There are three large and
six small "forts," similar in construction to those of Hais; all are
occupied by merchants, and are said to belong to the Sultan. The mass of
huts may be between twenty and thirty in number. They are matted
buildings, long and flat-roofed; half a dozen families inhabit the same
house, which is portioned off for such accommodation. Public buildings
there are none, and no wall protects the place. It is in the territory of
the Warsingali, and owns the rule of the Gerad or Prince, who sometimes
lives here, and at other times inhabits the Jungle. Las Kuray exports
gums, Dumbah sheep, and guano, the latter considered valuable, and sent to
Makalla in Arabia, to manure the date plantations.
Four miles westward of Las Kuray is Kurayat, also called Little Kuray. It
resembles the other settlement, and is not worth description. Lieutenant
Speke here occupied a fort or stone house belong to his Abban; finding the
people very suspicious, he did not enter Las Kuray for prudential motives.
There the Sultan has no habitation; when he visited the place he lodged in
the house of a Nacoda or ship-captain.
Lieutenant Speke was delayed at Kurayat by the pretext of want of cattle;
in reality to be plundered. The Sultan, who inhabits the Jungle, did not
make his appearance till repeatedly summoned. About the tenth day the old
man arrived on foot, attended by a dozen followers; he was carefully
placed in the centre of a double line bristling with spears, and marched
past to his own fort. Lieutenant Speke posted his servants with orders to
fire a salute of small firearms. The consequence was that the evening was
spent in prayers.
During Lieutenant Speke's first visit to the Sultan, who received him
squatting on the ground outside the house in which he lodged, with his
guards about him, the dignitary showed great trepidation, but returned
salams with politeness.< He is described as a fine-looking man, between
forty-eight and fifty years of age; he was dressed in an old and dirty
Tobe, had no turban, and appeared unarmed. He had consulted the claims of
"dignity" by keeping the traveller waiting ten days whilst he journeyed
twenty miles. Before showing himself he had privily held a Durbar at Las
Kuray; it was attended by the Agils of the tribe, by Mohammed Samattar
(Lieutenant Speke's Abban), and the people generally. Here the question
was debated whether the traveller was to be permitted to see the country.
The voice of the multitude was as usual _contra_, fearing to admit a wolf
into the fold. It was silenced however by the Sultan, who thought fit to
favour the English, and by the Abban, who settled the question, saying
that he, as the Sultan's subject, was answerable for all that might
happen, and that the chief might believe him or not;--"how could such
Jungle-folk know anything?"
On the morning of the 8th November the Sultan returned Lieutenant Speke's
visit. The traveller took the occasion of "opening his desire to visit the
Warsingali country and the lands on the road to Berberah, keeping inland
about 200 miles, more or less according to circumstances, and passing
through the Dulbahantas." To this the Sultan replied, that "as far as his
dominions extended the traveller was perfectly at liberty to go where he
liked; but as for visiting the Dulbahantas, he could not hear of or
countenance it." Mahmud Ali, Gerad or Prince of the southern Dulbahantas,
was too far away for communication, and Mohammed Ali Gerad, the nearest
chief, had only ruled seven or eight years; his power therefore was not
great. Moreover, these two were at war; the former having captured, it is
said, 2000 horses, 400 camels, and a great number of goats and sheep,
besides wounding a man.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 110 of 127
Words from 111042 to 112059
of 128411
