Before Noon
Shaykh Jami Called Upon Us, Informed Us That He Would Travel On The Most
Auspicious Day--Monday--And Exhorted Us To Patience, Deprecating Departure
Upon Friday, The Sabbath.
Then he arose to take leave, blessed us at some
length, prayed that we might be borne upon the wings of safety, again
advised Monday, and promised at all events to meet us at Wilensi.
I fear that the Shaykh's counsel was on this occasion likely to be
disregarded. We had been absent from our goods and chattels a whole
fortnight: the people of Harar are famously fickle; we knew not what the
morrow might bring forth from the Amir's mind--in fact, all these African
cities are prisons on a large scale, into which you enter by your own
will, and, as the significant proverb says, you leave by another's.
However, when the mosque prayers ended, a heavy shower and the stormy
aspect of the sky preached patience more effectually than did the divine:
we carefully tethered our mules, and unwillingly deferred our departure
till next morning.
FOOTNOTES
[1] The Ashantees at customs' time run across the royal threshold to
escape being seized and sacrificed; possibly the trace of the pagan rite
is still preserved by Moslem Harar, where it is now held a mark of respect
and always exacted from the citizens.
[2] I afterwards learned that when a man neglects a summons his door is
removed to the royal court-yard on the first day; on the second, it is
confiscated. The door is a valuable and venerable article in this part of
Africa. According to Bruce, Ptolemy Euergetes engraved it upon the Axum
Obelisk for the benefit of his newly conquered AEthiopian subjects, to whom
it had been unknown.
[3] In Abyssinia, according to the Lord of Geesh, this is a mark of royal
familiarity and confidence.
[4] About seven years ago the Hajj Sharmarkay of Zayla chose as his agent
at Harar, one of the Amir's officers, a certain Hajj Jamitay. When this
man died Sharmarkay demanded an account from his sons; at Berberah they
promised to give it, but returning to Harar they were persuaded, it is
believed, by the Gerad Mohammed, to forget their word. Upon this
Sharmarkay's friends and relations, incited by one Husayn, a Somali who
had lived many years at Harar in the Amir's favour, wrote an insulting
letter to the Gerad, beginning with, "No peace be upon thee, and no
blessings of Allah, thou butcher! son of a butcher &c. &c.!" and
concluding with a threat to pinion him in the market-place as a warning to
men. Husayn carried the letter, which at first excited general terror;
when, however, the attack did not take place, the Amir Abubakr imprisoned
the imprudent Somali till he died. Sharmarkay by way of reprisals
persuaded Alu, son of Sahlah Salaseh, king of Shoa, to seize about three
hundred Harari citizens living in his dominions and to keep them two years
in durance.
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