It was not without apprehension that I pocketed all my remaining
provisions, five biscuits, a few limes, and sundry lumps of sugar.
Any
delay or accident to our mules would starve us; in the first place, we
were about to traverse a desert, and secondly where Habr Awal were, they
would not sell meat or milk to Habr Gerhajis. My attendants provided
themselves with a small provision of sun-dried beef, grain, and
sweetmeats: only one water-bottle, however, was found amongst the whole
party. We arose at dawn after a wet night on the 26th January, but we did
not start till 7 A.M., the reason being that all the party, the Kalendar,
Shehrazade and Deenarzade, claimed and would have his and her several and
distinct palaver.
Having taken leave of our friends and property [6], we spurred our mules,
and guided by Beuh, rode through cloud and mist towards Koralay the
Saddle-back hill. After an hour's trot over rugged ground falling into the
Harawwah valley, we came to a Gudabirsi village, where my companions
halted to inquire the news, also to distend their stomachs with milk.
Thence we advanced slowly, as the broken path required, through thickets
of wild henna to the kraal occupied by Beuh's family. At a distance we
were descried by an old acquaintance, Fahi, who straightways began to
dance like a little Polyphemus, his shock-wig waving in the air: plentiful
potations of milk again delayed my companions, who were now laying in a
four days' stock.
Remounting, we resumed our journey over a mass of rock and thicket,
watered our mules at holes in a Fiumara, and made our way to a village
belonging to the Ugaz or chief of the Gudabirsi tribe. He was a middle-
aged man of ordinary presence, and he did not neglect to hold out his hand
for a gift which we could not but refuse. Halting for about an hour, we
persuaded a guide, by the offer of five dollars and a pair of cloths, to
accompany us. "Dubayr"--the Donkey--who belonged to the Bahgobo clan of
the Habr Awal, was a "long Lankin," unable, like all these Bedouins, to
endure fatigue. He could not ride, the saddle cut him, and he found his
mule restive; lately married, he was incapacitated for walking, and he
suffered sadly from thirst. The Donkey little knew, when he promised to
show Berberah on the third day, what he had bound himself to perform:
after the second march he was induced, only by the promise of a large
present, and one continual talk of food, to proceed, and often he threw
his lengthy form upon the ground, groaning that his supreme hour was at
hand. In the land which we were to traverse every man's spear would be
against us. By way of precaution, we ordered our protector to choose
desert roads and carefully to avoid all kraals. At first, not
understanding our reasons, and ever hankering after milk, he could not
pass a thorn fence without eyeing it wistfully.
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