They Might Easily Capture
The Place, But They Preserve It For Their Own Convenience.
These Gallas
are tolerably brave, avoid matchlock balls by throwing themselves upon the
ground when they see the flash, ride well, use the spear skilfully, and
although of a proverbially bad breed, are favourably spoken of by the
citizens.
The Somal find no difficulty in travelling amongst them. I
repeatedly heard at Zayla and at Harar that traders had visited the far
West, traversing for seven months a country of pagans wearing golden
bracelets [27], till they reached the Salt Sea, upon which Franks sail in
ships. [28] At Wilensi, one Mohammed, a Shaykhash, gave me his itinerary
of fifteen stages to the sources of the Abbay or Blue Nile: he confirmed
the vulgar Somali report that the Hawash and the Webbe Shebayli both take
rise in the same range of well wooded mountains which gives birth to the
river of Egypt.
The government of Harar is the Amir. These petty princes have a habit of
killing and imprisoning all those who are suspected of aspiring to the
throne. [29] Ahmed's greatgrandfather died in jail, and his father
narrowly escaped the same fate. When the present Amir ascended the throne
he was ordered, it is said, by the Makad or chief of the Nole Gallas, to
release his prisoners, or to mount his horse and leave the city. Three of
his cousins, however, were, when I visited Harar, in confinement: one of
them since that time died, and has been buried in his fetters. The Somal
declare that the state-dungeon of Harar is beneath the palace, and that he
who once enters it, lives with unkempt beard and untrimmed nails until the
day when death sets him free.
The Amir Ahmed's health is infirm. Some attribute his weakness to a fall
from a horse, others declare him to have been poisoned by one of his
wives. [30] I judged him consumptive. Shortly after my departure he was
upon the point of death, and he afterwards sent for a physician to Aden.
He has four wives. No. 1. is the daughter of the Gerad Hirsi; No. 2. a
Sayyid woman of Harar; No. 3. an emancipated slave girl; and No. 4. a
daughter of Gerad Abd el Majid, one of his nobles. He has two sons, who
will probably never ascend the throne; one is an infant, the other is a
boy now about five years old.
[Illustration]
The Amir Ahmed succeeded his father about three years ago. His rule is
severe if not just, and it has all the _prestige_ of secresy. As the
Amharas say, the "belly of the Master is not known:" even the Gerad
Mohammed, though summoned to council at all times, in sickness as in
health, dares not offer uncalled-for advice, and the queen dowager, the
Gisti Fatimah, was threatened with fetters if she persisted in
interference. Ahmed's principal occupations are spying his many stalwart
cousins, indulging in vain fears of the English, the Turks, and the Hajj
Sharmarkay, and amassing treasure by commerce and escheats.
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