During A Halt Of Twenty-One Days, The Traveller Had An Opportunity Of
Being Initiated Into The Mysteries Of Somali
Medicine and money hiding.
The people have but two cures for disease, one the actual cautery, the
other a purgative,
By means of melted sheep's-tail, followed by such a
draught of camel's milk that the stomach, having escaped the danger of
bursting, is suddenly and completely relieved. It is here the custom of
the wealthy to bury their hoards, and to reveal the secret only when at
the point of death. Lieutenant Speke went to a place where it is said a
rich man had deposited a considerable sum, and described his "cache" as
being "on a path in a direct line between two trees as far as the arms can
reach with a stick." The hoarder died between forty and fifty years ago,
and his children have been prevented by the rocky nature of the ground,
and their forgetting to ask which was the right side of the tree, from
succeeding in anything beyond turning up the stones.
Las Kuray is an open roadstead for native craft. The town is considered
one of the principal strongholds of the coast. There are three large and
six small "forts," similar in construction to those of Hais; all are
occupied by merchants, and are said to belong to the Sultan. The mass of
huts may be between twenty and thirty in number. They are matted
buildings, long and flat-roofed; half a dozen families inhabit the same
house, which is portioned off for such accommodation. Public buildings
there are none, and no wall protects the place. It is in the territory of
the Warsingali, and owns the rule of the Gerad or Prince, who sometimes
lives here, and at other times inhabits the Jungle. Las Kuray exports
gums, Dumbah sheep, and guano, the latter considered valuable, and sent to
Makalla in Arabia, to manure the date plantations.
Four miles westward of Las Kuray is Kurayat, also called Little Kuray. It
resembles the other settlement, and is not worth description. Lieutenant
Speke here occupied a fort or stone house belong to his Abban; finding the
people very suspicious, he did not enter Las Kuray for prudential motives.
There the Sultan has no habitation; when he visited the place he lodged in
the house of a Nacoda or ship-captain.
Lieutenant Speke was delayed at Kurayat by the pretext of want of cattle;
in reality to be plundered. The Sultan, who inhabits the Jungle, did not
make his appearance till repeatedly summoned. About the tenth day the old
man arrived on foot, attended by a dozen followers; he was carefully
placed in the centre of a double line bristling with spears, and marched
past to his own fort. Lieutenant Speke posted his servants with orders to
fire a salute of small firearms. The consequence was that the evening was
spent in prayers.
During Lieutenant Speke's first visit to the Sultan, who received him
squatting on the ground outside the house in which he lodged, with his
guards about him, the dignitary showed great trepidation, but returned
salams with politeness.< He is described as a fine-looking man, between
forty-eight and fifty years of age; he was dressed in an old and dirty
Tobe, had no turban, and appeared unarmed.
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