The
Abaskul Also Lies Scattered Over The Harar Hills, And Owns The Gerad Adan
As Its Chief.
This tribe numbers fourteen villages, and between 400 and
500 shields, and is divided into the Rer Yusuf, the Jibrailah, and the
Warra Dig:--the latter clan is said to be of Galla extraction.
On the morning after my arrival at Sagharrah I felt too ill to rise, and
was treated with unaffected kindness by all the establishment. The Gerad
sent to Harar for millet beer, Ao Samattar went to the gardens in search
of Kat, the sons Yusuf Dera and a dwarf [28] insisted upon firing me with
such ardour, that no refusal could avail: and Khayrah the wife, with her
daughters, two tall dark, smiling, and well-favoured girls of thirteen and
fifteen, sacrificed a sheep as my Fida, or Expiatory offering. Even the
Galla Christians, who flocked to see the stranger, wept for the evil fate
which had brought him so far from his fatherland, to die under a tree.
Nothing, indeed, would have been easier than such operation: all required
was the turning face to the wall, for four or five days. But to expire of
an ignoble colic!--the thing was not to be thought of, and a firm
resolution to live on sometimes, methinks, effects its object.
On the 1st January, 1855, feeling stronger, I clothed myself in my Arab
best, and asked a palaver with the Gerad. We retired to a safe place
behind the village, where I read with pomposity the Hajj Sharmarkay's
letter.
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