To Halimalah (the Holy Tree about half way) 192° 7
-- 91 miles.
8. To Aububah 245° 21
9. To Koralay 165° 25
10. To Harar 260° 65
-- 111 miles.
---
Total statute miles 202
[Illustration: COSTUMES OF HARAR]
CHAP. VIII.
TEN DAYS AT HARAR.
After waiting half an hour at the gate, we were told by the returned
warder to pass the threshold, and remounting guided our mules along the
main street, a narrow up-hill lane, with rocks cropping out from a surface
more irregular than a Perote pavement. Long Guled had given his animal
into the hands of our two Bedouins: they did not appear till after our
audience, when they informed us that the people at the entrance had
advised them to escape with the beasts, an evil fate having been prepared
for the proprietors.
Arrived within a hundred yards of the gate of holcus-stalks, which opens
into the courtyard of this African St. James, our guide, a blear-eyed,
surly-faced, angry-voiced fellow, made signs--none of us understanding his
Harari--to dismount. We did so. He then began to trot, and roared out
apparently that we must do the same. [1] We looked at one another, the
Hammal swore that he would perish foully rather than obey, and--conceive,
dear L., the idea of a petticoated pilgrim venerable as to beard and
turban breaking into a long "double!"--I expressed much the same
sentiment. Leading our mules leisurely, in spite of the guide's wrath, we
entered the gate, strode down the yard, and were placed under a tree in
its left corner, close to a low building of rough stone, which the
clanking of frequent fetters argued to be a state-prison.
This part of the court was crowded with Gallas, some lounging about,
others squatting in the shade under the palace walls. The chiefs were
known by their zinc armlets, composed of thin spiral circlets, closely
joined, and extending in mass from the wrist almost to the elbow: all
appeared to enjoy peculiar privileges,--they carried their long spears,
wore their sandals, and walked leisurely about the royal precincts. A
delay of half an hour, during which state-affairs were being transacted
within, gave me time to inspect a place of which so many and such
different accounts are current. The palace itself is, as Clapperton
describes the Fellatah Sultan's state-hall, a mere shed, a long, single-
storied, windowless barn of rough stone and reddish clay, with no other
insignia but a thin coat of whitewash over the door. This is the royal and
vizierial distinction at Harar, where no lesser man may stucco the walls
of his house. The courtyard was about eighty yards long by thirty in
breadth, irregularly shaped, and surrounded by low buildings: in the
centre, opposite the outer entrance, was a circle of masonry against which
were propped divers doors. [2]
Presently the blear-eyed guide with the angry voice returned from within,
released us from the importunities of certain forward and inquisitive
youth, and motioned us to doff our slippers at a stone step, or rather
line, about twelve feet distant from the palace-wall.
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