[27] To Hear His Projects, You Would Fancy Them The Offspring Of A Brain In The Prime Of Youth:

In order to carry them out he would even assist in suppressing the profitable slave-trade.

[28]

After half an hour's visit I was led by the Hajj through the streets of Zayla [29], to one of his substantial houses of coralline and mud plastered over with glaring whitewash. The ground floor is a kind of warehouse full of bales and boxes, scales and buyers. A flight of steep steps leads into a long room with shutters to exclude the light, floored with tamped earth, full of "evening flyers" [30], and destitute of furniture. Parallel to it are three smaller apartments; and above is a terraced roof, where they who fear not the dew and the land-breeze sleep. [31] I found a room duly prepared; the ground was spread with mats, and cushions against the walls denoted the Divan: for me was placed a Kursi or cot, covered with fine Persian rugs and gaudy silk and satin pillows. The Hajj installed us with ceremony, and insisted, despite my remonstrances, upon occupying the floor whilst I sat on the raised seat. After ushering in supper, he considerately remarked that travelling is fatiguing, and left us to sleep.

The well-known sounds of El Islam returned from memory. Again the melodious chant of the Muezzin,--no evening bell can compare with it for solemnity and beauty,--and in the neighbouring mosque, the loudly intoned Amin and Allaho Akbar,--far superior to any organ,--rang in my ear. The evening gun of camp was represented by the Nakkarah, or kettle-drum, sounded about seven P.M. at the southern gate; and at ten a second drumming warned the paterfamilias that it was time for home, and thieves, and lovers,--that it was the hour for bastinado. Nightfall was ushered in by the song, the dance, and the marriage festival,--here no permission is required for "native music in the lines,"--and muffled figures flitted mysteriously through the dark alleys.

* * * * *

After a peep through the open window, I fell asleep, feeling once more at home.

FOOTNOTES

[1] "A tradition exists," says Lieut. Cruttenden, "amongst the people of Harar, that the prosperity of their city depends upon the exclusion of all travellers not of the Moslem faith, and all Christians are specially interdicted." These freaks of interdiction are common to African rulers, who on occasions of war, famine or pestilence, struck with some superstitious fear, close their gates to strangers.

[2] The 6th of Safar in 1864 corresponds with our 28th October. The Hadis is [Arabic] "when the 6th of Safar went forth, my faith from the cloud came forth."

[3] The Abyssinian law of detaining guests,--Pedro Covilhao the first Portuguese envoy (A.D. 1499) lived and died a prisoner there,--appears to have been the Christian modification of the old Ethiopic rite of sacrificing strangers.

[4] It would be wonderful if Orientals omitted to romance about the origin of such an invention as the Dayrah or compass. Shaykh Majid is said to have been a Syrian saint, to whom Allah gave the power of looking upon earth, as though it were a ball in his hand. Most Moslems agree in assigning this origin to the Dayrah, and the Fatihah in honor of the holy man, is still repeated by the pious mariner.

Easterns do not "box the compass" after our fashion: with them each point has its own name, generally derived from some prominent star on the horizon. Of these I subjoin a list as in use amongst the Somal, hoping that it may be useful to Oriental students. The names in hyphens are those given in a paper on the nautical instrument of the Arabs by Jas. Prinseps (Journal of the As. Soc., December 1836). The learned secretary appears not to have heard the legend of Shaykh Majid, for he alludes to the "Majidi Kitab" or Oriental Ephemeris, without any explanation.

North Jah [Arabic] East Matla [Arabic] N. by E. Farjad [Arabic] E. by S. Jauza [Arabic] (or [Arabic]) E.S.E. Tir [Arabic] N.N.E. Naash [Arabic] S.E. by E. Iklil [Arabic] N.E. by E. Nakab [Arabic] S.E. Akrab [Arabic] N.E. Ayyuk [Arabic] S.E. by S. Himarayn [Arabic] N.E. by E. Waki [Arabic] S.S.E. Suhayl [Arabic] E.N.E. Sumak [Arabic] S. by E. Suntubar [Arabic] E. by N. Surayya [Arabic] (or [Arabic])

The south is called El Kutb ([Arabic]) and the west El Maghib ([Arabic]). The western points are named like the eastern. North-east, for instance is Ayyuk el Matlai; north-west, Ayyuk el Maghibi. Finally, the Dayrah Jahi is when the magnetic needle points due north. The Dayrah Farjadi (more common in these regions), is when the bar is fixed under Farjad, to allow for variation, which at Berberah is about 4° 50' west.

[5] The curious reader will find in the Herodotus of the Arabs, El Masudi's "Meadows of gold and mines of gems," a strange tale of the blind billows and the singing waves of Berberah and Jofuni (Cape Guardafui, the classical Aromata).

[6] "Foyst" and "buss," are the names applied by old travellers to the half-decked vessels of these seas.

[7] Holcus Sorghum, the common grain of Africa and Arabia: the Somali call it Hirad; the people of Yemen, Taam.

[8] The Somal being a people of less nervous temperament than the Arabs and Indians, do not fear the moonlight.

[9] The first name is that of the individual, as the Christian name with us, the second is that of the father; in the Somali country, as in India, they are not connected by the Arab "bin"--son of.

[10] Abdy is an abbreviation of Abdullah; Abokr, a corruption of Abubekr. The "End of Time" alludes to the prophesied corruption of the Moslem priesthood in the last epoch of the world.

[11] This peculiarity is not uncommon amongst the Somal; it is considered by them a sign of warm temperament.

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