Not Without Trouble,
For They Feared To Depart From The _Mos Majorum_, We Persuaded Them That
The Ass Carried No Merchandise.
Then rounding Kondura's northern flank, we
entered the Amir's territory:
About thirty miles distant, and separated by
a series of blue valleys, lay a dark speck upon a tawny sheet of stubble--
Harar.
Having paused for a moment to savour success, we began the descent. The
ground was a slippery black soil--mist ever settles upon Kondura--and
frequent springs oozing from the rock formed beds of black mire. A few
huge Birbisa trees, the remnant of a forest still thick around the
mountain's neck, marked out the road: they were branchy from stem to
stern, and many had a girth of from twenty to twenty-five feet. [31]
After an hour's ride amongst thistles, whose flowers of a bright redlike
worsted were not less than a child's head, we watered our mules at a rill
below the slope. Then remounting, we urged over hill and dale, where Galla
peasants were threshing and storing their grain with loud songs of joy;
they were easily distinguished by their African features, mere caricatures
of the Somal, whose type has been Arabized by repeated immigrations from
Yemen and Hadramaut. Late in the afternoon, having gained ten miles in a
straight direction, we passed through a hedge of plantains, defending the
windward side of Gafra, a village of Midgans who collect the Gerad Adan's
grain. They shouted delight on recognising their old friend, Mad Said, led
us to an empty Gambisa, swept and cleaned it, lighted a fire, turned our
mules into a field to graze, and went forth to seek food. Their hospitable
thoughts, however, were marred by the two citizens of Harar, who privately
threatened them with the Amir's wrath, if they dared to feed that Turk.
As evening drew on, came a message from our enemies, the Habr Awal, who
offered, if we would wait till sunrise, to enter the city in our train.
The Gerad Adan had counselled me not to provoke these men; so, contrary to
the advice of my two companions, I returned a polite answer, purporting
that we would expect them till eight o'clock the next morning.
At 7 P.M., on the 3rd January, we heard that the treacherous Habr Awal had
driven away their cows shortly after midnight. Seeing their hostile
intentions, I left my journal, sketches, and other books in charge of an
old Midgan, with directions that they should be forwarded to the Gerad
Adan, and determined to carry nothing but our arms and a few presents for
the Amir. We saddled our mules, mounted and rode hurriedly along the edge
of a picturesque chasm of tender pink granite, here and there obscured by
luxuriant vegetation. In the centre, fringed with bright banks a shallow
rill, called Doghlah, now brawls in tiny cascades, then whirls through
huge boulders towards the Erar River. Presently, descending by a ladder of
rock scarcely safe even for mules, we followed the course of the burn, and
emerging into the valley beneath, we pricked forwards rapidly, for day was
wearing on, and we did not wish the Habr Awal to precede us.
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