Had been "roasted" by the women all
day on account of their poverty, began to recite the Koran with might, in
gratitude for having escaped many perils.
Night deepening, our attention
was rivetted by a strange spectacle; a broad sheet of bright blaze,
reminding me of Hanno's fiery river, swept apparently down a hill, and,
according to my companions, threatened the whole prairie. These accidents
are common: a huntsman burns a tree for honey, or cooks his food in the
dry grass, the wind rises and the flames spread far and wide. On this
occasion no accident occurred; the hills, however, smoked like a Solfatara
for two days.
About 9 P.M. we heard voices, and I was told to discharge my rifle lest
the kraal be closed to us; in due time we reached a long, low, dark line
of sixty or seventy huts, disposed in a circle, so as to form a fence,
with a few bushes--thorns being hereabouts rare--in the gaps between the
abodes. The people, a mixture of Girhi and Gudabirsi Bedouins, swarmed out
to gratify their curiosity, but we were in no humour for long
conversations. Our luggage was speedily disposed in a heap near the kraal,
the mules and camels were tethered for the night, then, supperless and
shivering with cold, we crept under our mats and fell asleep. That day we
had ridden nearly fifteen hours; our halting place lay about thirty miles
from, and 240° south-west of, Koralay.
After another delay, and a second vain message to the Gerad Adan, about
noon appeared that dignitary's sixth wife, sister to the valiant Beuh. Her
arrival disconcerted my companions, who were too proud to be protected by
a woman. "Dahabo," however, relieved their anxiety by informing us that
the Gerad had sent his eldest son Sherwa, as escort. This princess was a
gipsy-looking dame, coarsely dressed, about thirty years old, with a gay
leer, a jaunty demeanour, and the reputation of being "fast;" she showed
little shame-facedness when I saluted her, and received with noisy joy the
appropriate present of a new and handsome Tobe. About 4 P.M. returned our
second messenger, bearing with him a reproving message from the Gerad, for
not visiting him without delay; in token of sincerity, he forwarded his
baton, a knobstick about two feet long, painted in rings of Cutch colours,
red, black, and yellow alternately, and garnished on the summit with a
ball of similar material.
At dawn on the 26th December, mounted upon a little pony, came Sherwa,
heir presumptive to the Gerad Adan's knobstick. His father had sent him to
us three days before, but he feared the Gudabirsi as much as the Gudabirsi
feared him, and he probably hung about our camp till certain that it was
safe to enter. We received him politely, and he in acknowledgment
positively declared that Beuh should not return before eating honey in his
cottage. Our Abban's heroism now became infectious. Even the End of Time,
whose hot valour had long since fallen below zero, was inspired by the
occasion, and recited, as usual with him in places and at times of extreme
safety, the Arabs' warrior lines--
"I have crossed the steed since my eyes saw light,
I have fronted death till he feared my sight,
And the cleaving of helm, and the riving of mail
Were the dreams of my youth,--are my manhood's delight."
As we had finished loading, a mule's bridle was missed. Sherwa ordered
instant restitution to his father's stranger, on the ground that all the
property now belonged to the Gerad; and we, by no means idle, fiercely
threatened to bewitch the kraal. The article was presently found hard by,
on a hedge. This was the first and last case of theft which occurred to us
in the Somali country;--I have travelled through most civilised lands, and
have lost more.
At 8 A.M. we marched towards the north-west, along the southern base of
the Gurays hills, and soon arrived at the skirt of the prairie, where a
well-trodden path warned us that we were about to quit the desert. After
advancing six miles in line we turned to the right, and recited a Fatihah
over the heap of rough stones, where, shadowed by venerable trees, lie the
remains of the great Shaykh Abd el Malik. A little beyond this spot, rises
suddenly from the plain a mass of castellated rock, the subject of many a
wild superstition. Caravans always encamp beneath it, as whoso sleeps upon
the summit loses his senses to evil spirits. At some future day Harar will
be destroyed, and "Jannah Siri" will become a flourishing town. We
ascended it, and found no life but hawks, coneys, an owl [5], and a
graceful species of black eagle [6]; there were many traces of buildings,
walls, ruined houses, and wells, whilst the sides and summit were tufted
with venerable sycamores. This act was an imprudence; the Bedouins at once
declared that we were "prospecting" for a fort, and the evil report
preceded us to Harar.
After a mile's march from Jannah Siri, we crossed a ridge of rising
ground, and suddenly, as though by magic, the scene shifted.
Before us lay a little Alp; the second step of the Ethiopian Highland.
Around were high and jagged hills, their sides black with the Saj [7] and
Somali pine [8], and their upper brows veiled with a thin growth of
cactus. Beneath was a deep valley, in the midst of which ran a serpentine
of shining waters, the gladdest spectacle we had yet witnessed: further in
front, masses of hill rose abruptly from shady valleys, encircled on the
far horizon by a straight blue line of ground, resembling a distant sea.
Behind us glared the desert: we had now reached the outskirts of
civilization, where man, abandoning his flocks and herds, settles,
cultivates, and attends to the comforts of life.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 64 of 127
Words from 64211 to 65216
of 128411
