On Inquiry, It
Proved That The Chief, Who Was Engaged In Selecting Two Horses And Two
Hundred Cows, The Price Of Blood Claimed By The Amir Of Harar, For The
Murder Of A Citizen, Had That Day Removed To Sagharrah, Another
Settlement.
As we entered the long straggling village of Wilensi, our party was
divided by the Gerad's two wives.
The Hammal, the Kalendar, Shehrazade,
and Deenarzade, remained with Beuh and his sister in her Gurgi, whilst
Long Guled, the End of Time, and I were conducted to the cottage of the
Gerad's prettiest wife, Sudiyah. She was a tall woman, with a light
complexion, handsomely dressed in a large Harar Tobe, with silver
earrings, and the kind of necklace called Jilbah or Kardas. [18] The
Geradah (princess) at once ordered our hides to be spread in a comfortable
part of the hut, and then supplied us with food--boiled beef, pumpkin, and
Jowari cakes. During the short time spent in that Gambisa, I had an
opportunity, dear L., of seeing the manners and customs of the settled
Somal.
The interior of the cottage is simple. Entering the door, a single plank
with pins for hinges fitted into sockets above and below the lintel--in
fact, as artless a contrivance as ever seen in Spain or Corsica--you find
a space, divided by dwarf walls of wattle and dab into three compartments,
for the men, women, and cattle. The horses and cows, tethered at night on
the left of the door, fill the cottage with the wherewithal to pass many a
_nuit blanche_: the wives lie on the right, near a large fireplace of
stones and raised clay, and the males occupy the most comfortable part,
opposite to and farthest from the entrance.
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