Still The Lad Would Not Leave The
Caravan Till It Reached The Dulbahanta Frontier.
And the Abban delayed a
Negro servant, Lieutenant Speke's gun-bearer, trying by many offers and
promises to seduce him from service.
_19th November_.--At dawn the camels were brought in; they had been
feeding at large all night, which proves the safety of the country. After
three hours' work at loading, the caravan started up the watercourse. The
road was rugged; at times the watercourse was blocked up with boulders,
which compelled the travellers temporarily to leave it. With a little
cutting away of projecting rocks, which are of soft stone, the road might
be made tolerably easy. Scattered and stunted Acacias, fringed with fresh
green foliage, relieved the eye; all else was barren rock. After marching
about two miles the traveller was obliged to halt by the Sultan; a
messenger arrived with the order. The halting-place is called Damalay. It
is in the bed of the watercourse, stagnating rain, foul-looking but sweet,
lying close by. As in all other parts of this Fiumara, the bed was dotted
with a bright green tree, sometimes four feet high, resembling a willow.
Lieutenant Speke spread his mat in the shade, and spent the rest of the
day at his diary and in conversation with the natives.
The next day was also spent at Damalay. The interpreter, Mohammed Ahmed, a
Somali of the Warsingali tribe, and all the people, refused positively to
advance. Lieutenant Speke started on foot to Las Kuray in search of the
Abban: he was followed at some distance by the Somal, and the whole party
returned on hearing a report that the chief and the Abban were on the way.
The traveller seems on this occasion to have formed a very low estimate of
the people. He stopped their food until they promised to start the next
day.
_21st November_.--The caravan marched at gun-fire, and, after a mile, left
the watercourse, and ascended by a rough camel-path a buttress of hill
leading to the ridge of the mountains. The ascent was not steep, but the
camels were so bad that they could scarcely be induced to advance. The
country was of a more pleasant aspect, a shower of rain having lately
fallen. At this height the trees grow thicker and finer, the stones are
hidden by grass and heather, and the air becomes somewhat cooler. After a
six miles' march Lieutenant Speke encamped at a place called Adhai. Sweet
water was found within a mile's walk;--the first spring from which our
traveller drank. Here he pitched a tent.
At Adhai Lieutenant Speke was detained nine days by the non-appearance of
his "Protector" and the refusal of his followers to march without him. The
camels were sent back with the greatest difficulty to fetch the portion of
the baggage left behind. On the 24th Lieutenant Speke sent his Hindostani
servant to Las Kuray, with orders to bring up the baggage. "Imam" started
alone and on foot, not being permitted to ride a pony hired by the
traveller: he reported that there is a much better road for laden camels
from the coast to the crest of the hills. Though unprotected, he met with
no difficulty, and returned two days afterwards, having seen the baggage
_en route_. During Lieutenant Speke's detention, the Somal battened on his
provisions, seeing that his two servants were absent, and that no one
guarded the bags. Half the rice had been changed at Las Kuray for an
inferior description. The camel drivers refused their rations because all
their friends (thirty in number) were not fed. The Sultan's son taught
them to win the day by emptying and hiding the water-skins, by threatening
to kill the servants if they fetched water, and by refusing to do work.
During the discussion, which appears to have been lively, the eldest of
the Sultan's four sons, Mohammed Aul, appeared from Las Kuray. He seems to
have taken a friendly part, stopped the discussion, and sent away the
young prince as a nuisance. Unfortunately, however, the latter reappeared
immediately that the date bags were opened, and Mohammed Aul stayed only
two days in Lieutenant Speke's neighbourhood. On the 28th November the
Abban appeared. The Sultan then forced upon Lieutenant Speke his brother
Hasan as a second Abban, although this proceeding is contrary to the
custom of the country. The new burden, however, after vain attempts at
extortion, soon disappeared, carrying away with him a gun.
For tanning water-skins the Somal here always use, when they can procure
it, a rugged bark with a smooth epidermis of a reddish tinge, a pleasant
aromatic odour, and a strong astringent flavour. They call it Mohur:
powdered and sprinkled dry on a wound, it acts as a styptic. Here was
observed an aloe-formed plant, with a strong and woody thorn on the top.
It is called Haskul or Hig; the fibres are beaten out with sticks or
stones, rotted in water, and then made into cord. In other parts the young
bark of the acacia is used; it is first charred on one side, then reduced
to fibre by mastication, and lastly twisted into the semblance of a rope.
From a little manuscript belonging to the Abban, Lieutenant Speke learned
that about 440 years ago (A.D. 1413), one Darud bin Ismail, unable to live
with his elder brother at Mecca, fled with a few followers to these
shores. In those days the land was ruled, they say, by a Christian chief
called Kin, whose Wazir, Wharrah, was the terror of all men. Darud
collected around him, probably by proselytising, a strong party: he
gradually increased his power, and ended by expelling the owners of the
country, who fled to the N.W. as far as Abyssinia. Darud, by an Asyri
damsel, had a son called Kabl Ullah, whose son Harti had, as progeny,
Warsingali, Dulbahanta, and Mijjarthayn. These three divided the country
into as many portions, which, though great territorial changes have taken
place, to this day bear their respective owners' names.
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