The Del, Or Milk Pail, Is Shaped
Like Two Cones Joined At The Base By Lateral Thongs, The Upper And Smaller
Half Acting As Cup And Cover.
And finally the Wesi, or water bottle,
contains the traveller's store for drinking and religious ablution.
When the kraal is to be removed, the huts and furniture are placed upon
the camels, and the hedges and earth are sometimes set on fire, to purify
the place and deceive enemies, Throughout the country black circles of
cinders or thorn diversify the hill sides, and show an extensive
population. Travellers always seek deserted kraals for security of
encampment. As they swarm with vermin by night and flies by day [23], I
frequently made strong objections to these favourite localities: the
utmost conceded to me was a fresh enclosure added by a smaller hedge to
the outside abattis of the more populous cow-kraals.
On the 10th December we halted: the bad water, the noon-day sun of 107°,
and the cold mornings--51° being the average--had seriously affected my
health. All the population flocked to see me, darkening the hut with
nodding wigs and staring faces: and,--the Gudabirsi are polite knaves,--
apologised for the intrusion. Men, women, and children appeared in crowds,
bringing milk and ghee, meat and water, several of the elders remembered
having seen me at Berberah [24], and the blear-eyed maidens, who were in
no wise shy, insisted upon admiring the white stranger.
Feeling somewhat restored by repose, I started the next day, "with a tail
on" to inspect the ruins of Aububah. After a rough ride over stony ground
we arrived at a grassy hollow, near a line of hills, and dismounted to
visit the Shaykh Aububah's remains. He rests under a little conical dome
of brick, clay and wood, similar in construction to that of Zayla: it is
falling to pieces, and the adjoining mosque, long roofless, is overgrown
with trees, that rustle melancholy sounds in the light joyous breeze.
Creeping in by a dwarf door or rather hole, my Gudabirsi guides showed me
a bright object forming the key of the arch: as it shone they suspected
silver, and the End of Time whispered a sacrilegious plan for purloining
it. Inside the vault were three graves apparently empty, and upon the dark
sunken floor lay several rounded stones, resembling cannon balls, and used
as weights by the more civilised Somal. Thence we proceeded to the battle-
field, a broad sheet of sandstone, apparently dinted by the hoofs of mules
and horses: on this ground, which, according to my guides, was in olden
days soft and yielding, took place the great action between Aububah and
Darbiyah Kola. A second mosque was found with walls in tolerable repair,
but, like the rest of the place, roofless. Long Guled ascended the broken
staircase of a small square minaret, and delivered a most ignorant and
Bedouin-like Azan or call to prayer. Passing by the shells of houses, we
concluded our morning's work with a visit to the large graveyard.
Apparently it did not contain the bones of Moslems:
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