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. Whenever, in the
desert,--where, says the proverb, all men are enemies--you sight a fellow
creature from afar, you wave the right arm violently up and down,
shouting "War Joga! War Joga!"--stand still! stand still! If they halt,
you send a parliamentary to within speaking distance. Should they advance
[38], you fire, taking especial care not to miss; when two saddles are
emptied, the rest are sure to decamp.
I had given the Abban orders to be in readiness,--my patience being
thoroughly exhausted,--on Sunday, the 26th of November, and determined to
walk the whole way, rather than waste another day waiting for cattle. As
the case had become hopeless, a vessel was descried standing straight from
Tajurrah, and, suddenly as could happen in the Arabian Nights, four fine
mules, saddled and bridled, Abyssinian fashion, appeared at the door. [39]
FOOTNOTES
[1] Brace describes Zayla as "a small island, on the very coast of Adel."
To reconcile discrepancy, he adopts the usual clumsy expedient of
supposing two cities of the same name, one situated seven degrees south of
the other. Salt corrects the error, but does not seem to have heard of old
Zayla's insular position.
[2] The inhabitants were termed Avalitae, and the Bay "Sinus Avaliticus."
Some modern travellers have confounded it with Adule or Adulis, the port
of Axum, founded by fugitive Egyptian slaves.
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