He politely promised to start a messenger that
hour, and he delayed doing so for ten days. An easterly wind set in and
gave the crew an excuse for wasting another fortnight. [31] Travellers are
an irritable genus: I stormed and fretted at the delays to show
earnestness of purpose. All the effect was a paroxysm of talking. The Hajj
and his son treated me, like a spoilt child, to a double allowance of food
and milk: they warned me that the small-pox was depopulating Harar, that
the road swarmed with brigands, and that the Amir or prince was certain
destruction,--I contented myself with determining that both were true
Oriental hyperbolists, and fell into more frequent fits of passion. The
old man could not comprehend my secret. "If the English," he privately
remarked, "wish to take Harar, let them send me 500 soldiers; if not, I
can give all information concerning it." When convinced of my
determination to travel, he applied his mind to calculating the benefit
which might be derived from the event, and, as the following pages will
show, he was not without success.
Towards the end of November, four camels were procured, an Abban was
engaged, we hired two women cooks and a fourth servant; my baggage was
reformed, the cloth and tobacco being sewn up in matting, and made to fit
the camels' sides [32]; sandals were cut out for walking, letters were
written, messages of dreary length,--too important to be set down in black
and white,--were solemnly entrusted to us, palavers were held, and affairs
began to wear the semblance of departure. The Hajj strongly recommended us
to one of the principal families of the Gudabirsi tribe, who would pass us
on to their brother-in-law Adan, the Gerad or prince of the Girhi; and he,
in due time, to his kinsman the Amir of Harar. The chain was commenced by
placing us under the protection of one Raghe, a petty Eesa chief of the
Mummasan clan. By the good aid of the Hajj and our sweetmeats, he was
persuaded, for the moderate consideration of ten Tobes [33], to accompany
us to the frontier of his clan, distant about fifty miles, to introduce us
to the Gudabirsi, and to provide us with three men as servants, and a
suitable escort, a score or so, in dangerous places. He began, with us in
an extravagant manner, declaring that nothing but "name" induced him to
undertake the perilous task; that he had left his flocks and herds at a
season of uncommon risk, and that all his relations must receive a certain
honorarium. But having paid at least three pounds for a few days of his
society, we declined such liberality, and my companions, I believe,
declared that it would be "next time:"--on all such occasions I make a
point of leaving the room, since for one thing given at least five are
promised on oath. Raghe warned us seriously to prepare for dangers and
disasters, and this seemed to be the general opinion of Zayla, whose timid
citizens determined that we were tired of our lives. The cold had driven
the Nomads from the hills to the warm maritime Plains [34], we should
therefore traverse a populous region; and, as the End of Time aptly
observed, "Man eats you up, the Desert does not." Moreover this year the
Ayyal Nuh Ismail, a clan of the Habr Awal tribe, is "out," and has been
successful against the Eesa, who generally are the better men. They sweep
the country in Kaum or Commandos [35], numbering from twenty to two
hundred troopers, armed with assegai, dagger, and shield, and carrying a
water skin and dried meat for a three days' ride, sufficient to scour the
length of the low land. The honest fellows are not so anxious to plunder
as to ennoble themselves by taking life: every man hangs to his saddle bow
an ostrich [36] feather,--emblem of truth,--and the moment his javelin has
drawn blood, he sticks it into his tufty pole with as much satisfaction as
we feel when attaching a medal to our shell-jackets. It is by no means
necessary to slay the foe in fair combat: Spartan-like, treachery is
preferred to stand-up fighting; and you may measure their ideas of honor,
by the fact that women are murdered in cold blood, as by the Amazulus,
with the hope that the unborn child may prove a male. The hero carries
home the trophy of his prowess [37], and his wife, springing from her
tent, utters a long shrill scream of joy, a preliminary to boasting of her
man's valour, and bitterly taunting the other possessors of _noirs
faineants_: the derided ladies abuse their lords with peculiar virulence,
and the lords fall into paroxysms of envy, hatred, and malice. During my
short stay at Zayla six or seven murders were committed close to the
walls: the Abban brought news, a few hours before our departure, that two
Eesas had been slaughtered by the Habr Awal. The Eesa and Dankali also
have a blood feud, which causes perpetual loss of life. But a short time
ago six men of these two tribes were travelling together, when suddenly
the last but one received from the hindermost a deadly spear thrust in the
back. The wounded man had the presence of mind to plunge his dagger in the
side of the wayfarer who preceded him, thus dying, as the people say, in
company. One of these events throws the country into confusion, for the
_vendetta_ is rancorous and bloody, as in ancient Germany or in modern
Corsica. Our Abban enlarged upon the unpleasant necessity of travelling
all night towards the hills, and lying _perdu_ during the day. The most
dangerous times are dawn and evening tide: the troopers spare their horses
during the heat, and themselves during the dew-fall.
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