We Pursued Our Way Over Hard Alluvial
Soil To Sand, And Thence Passed Into A Growth Of Stiff Yellow Grass Not
Unlike A Stubble In English September.
Day broke upon a Somali Arcadia,
whose sole flaws were salt water and Simum.
Whistling shepherds [14]
carried in their arms the younglings of the herds, or, spear in hand,
drove to pasture long regular lines of camels, that waved their vulture-
like heads, and arched their necks to bite in play their neighbours'
faces, humps, and hind thighs. They were led by a patriarch, to whose
throat hung a Kor or wooden bell, the preventive for straggling; and most
of them were followed (for winter is the breeding season) by colts in
every stage of infancy. [15] Patches of sheep, with snowy skins and jetty
faces, flocked the yellow plain; and herds of goats resembling deer were
driven by hide-clad children to the bush. Women, in similar attire,
accompanied them, some chewing the inner bark of trees, others spinning
yarns of a white creeper called Sagsug for ropes and tent-mats. The boys
carried shepherds' crooks [16], and bore their watering pails [17],
foolscap fashion, upon their heads. Sometimes they led the ram, around
whose neck a cord of white leather was bound for luck; at other times they
frisked with the dog, an animal by no means contemptible in the eyes of
the Bedouins. [18] As they advanced, the graceful little sand antelope
bounded away over the bushes; and above them, soaring high in the
cloudless skies, were flights of vultures and huge percnopters, unerring
indicators of man's habitation in Somali-land. [19]
A net-work of paths showed that we were approaching a populous place; and
presently men swarmed forth from their hive-shaped tents, testifying their
satisfaction at our arrival, the hostile Habr Awal having threatened to
"eat them up." We rode cautiously, as is customary, amongst the yeaning
she-camels, who are injured by a sudden start, and about 8 A.M. arrived at
our guide's kraal, the fourth station, called "Gudingaras," or the low
place where the Garas tree grows. The encampment lay south-east (165°) of,
and about twenty miles from, Zayla.
Raghe disappeared, and the Bedouins flocked out to gaze upon us as we
approached the kraal. Meanwhile Shehrazade and Deenarzade fetched tent-
sticks from the village, disposed our luggage so as to form a wall, rigged
out a wigwam, spread our beds in the shade, and called aloud for sweet and
sour milk. I heard frequently muttered by the red-headed spearmen, the
ominous term "Faranj" [20]; and although there was no danger, it was
deemed advisable to make an impression without delay. Presently they began
to deride our weapons: the Hammal requested them to put up one of their
shields as a mark; they laughed aloud but shirked compliance. At last a
large brown, bare-necked vulture settled on the ground at twenty paces'
distance. The Somal hate the "Gurgur", because he kills the dying and
devours the dead on the battle-field:
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