They Have
Added My Spare Rifle, And Guns To The Camel-Load; Such Weapons Are Well
Enough At Aden, In Somali-Land Men Would Deride The Outlandish Tool!
I
told them that in my country women use bows and arrows, moreover that
lancers are generally considered a corps of non-combatants; in vain!
They
adhered as strongly--so mighty a thing is prejudice--to their partiality
for bows, arrows, and lances. Their horsemanship is peculiar, they balance
themselves upon little Abyssinian saddles, extending the leg and raising
the heel in the Louis Quinze style of equitation, and the stirrup is an
iron ring admitting only the big toe. I follow them mounting a fine white
mule, which, with its gaudily _galonne_ Arab pad and wrapper cloth, has a
certain dignity of look; a double-barrelled gun lies across my lap; and a
rude pair of holsters, the work of Hasan Turki, contains my Colt's six-
shooters.
Marching in this order, which was to serve as a model, we travelled due
south along the coast, over a hard, stoneless, and alluvial plain, here
dry, there muddy (where the tide reaches), across boggy creeks, broad
water-courses, and warty flats of black mould powdered with nitrous salt,
and bristling with the salsolaceous vegetation familiar to the Arab
voyager. Such is the general formation of the plain between the mountains
and the sea, whose breadth, in a direct line, may measure from forty-five
to forty-eight miles. Near the first zone of hills, or sub-Ghauts, it
produces a thicker vegetation; thorns and acacias of different kinds
appear in clumps; and ground broken with ridges and ravines announces the
junction.
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