Stand still! If they halt,
you send a parliamentary to within speaking distance. Should they advance
[38], you fire, taking especial care not to miss; when two saddles are
emptied, the rest are sure to decamp.
I had given the Abban orders to be in readiness,--my patience being
thoroughly exhausted,--on Sunday, the 26th of November, and determined to
walk the whole way, rather than waste another day waiting for cattle. As
the case had become hopeless, a vessel was descried standing straight from
Tajurrah, and, suddenly as could happen in the Arabian Nights, four fine
mules, saddled and bridled, Abyssinian fashion, appeared at the door. [39]
FOOTNOTES
[1] Brace describes Zayla as "a small island, on the very coast of Adel."
To reconcile discrepancy, he adopts the usual clumsy expedient of
supposing two cities of the same name, one situated seven degrees south of
the other. Salt corrects the error, but does not seem to have heard of old
Zayla's insular position.
[2] The inhabitants were termed Avalitae, and the Bay "Sinus Avaliticus."
Some modern travellers have confounded it with Adule or Adulis, the port
of Axum, founded by fugitive Egyptian slaves. The latter, however, lies
further north: D'Anville places it at Arkiko, Salt at Zula (or Azule),
near the head of Annesley Bay.
[3] The Arabs were probably the earliest colonists of this coast. Even the
Sawahil people retain a tradition that their forefathers originated in the
south of Arabia.
[4] To the present day the district of Gozi is peopled by Mohammedans
called Arablet, "whose progenitors," according to Harris, "are said by
tradition to have been left there prior to the reign of Nagasi, first King
of Shoa. Hossain, Wahabit, and Abdool Kurreem, generals probably detached
from the victorious army of Graan (Mohammed Gragne), are represented to
have come from Mecca, and to have taken possession of the country,--the
legend assigning to the first of these warriors as his capital, the
populous village of Medina, which is conspicuous on a cone among the
mountains, shortly after entering the valley of Robi."
[5] Historia Regum Islamiticorum in Abyssinia, Lugd. Bat. 1790. [6] The
affinity between the Somal and the Berbers of Northern Africa, and their
descent from Canaan, son of Ham, has been learnedly advanced and refuted
by several Moslem authors. The theory appears to have arisen from a
mistake; Berberah, the great emporium of the Somali country, being
confounded with the Berbers of Nubia.
[7] Probably Zaidi from Yemen. At present the people of Zayla are all
orthodox Sunnites.
[8] Fish, as will be seen in these pages, is no longer a favourite article
of diet.
[9] Bruce, book 8.
[10] Hence the origin of the trade between Africa and Cutch, which
continues uninterrupted to the present time. Adel, Arabia, and India, as
Bruce remarks, were three partners in one trade, who mutually exported
their produce to Europe, Asia, and Africa, at that time the whole known
world.
[11] The Turks, under a show of protecting commerce, established these
posts in their different ports. But they soon made it appear that the end
proposed was only to ascertain who were the subjects from whom they could
levy the most enormous extortions. Jeddah, Zebid, and Mocha, the places of
consequence nearest to Abyssinia on the Arabian coast, Suakin, a seaport
town on the very barriers of Abyssinia, in the immediate way of their
caravan to Cairo on the African side, were each under the command of a
Turkish Pasha and garrisoned by Turkish troops sent thither from
Constantinople by the emperors Selim and Sulayman.
[12] Bartema's account of its productions is as follows: "The soil beareth
wheat and hath abundance of flesh and divers other commodious things. It
hath also oil, not of olives, but of some other thing, I know not what.
There is also plenty of honey and wax; there are likewise certain sheep
having their tails of the weight of sixteen pounds, and exceeding fat; the
head and neck are black, and all the rest white. There are also sheep
altogether white, and having tails of a cubit long, and hanging down like
a great cluster of grapes, and have also great laps of skin hanging down
from their throats, as have bulls and oxen, hanging down almost to the
ground. There are also certain kind with horns like unto harts' horns;
these are wild, and when they be taken are given to the Sultan of that
city as a kingly present. I saw there also certain kind having only one
horn in the midst of the forehead, as hath the unicorn, and about a span
of length, but the horn bendeth backward: they are of bright shining red
colour. But they that have harts' horns are inclining to black colour.
Living is there good and cheap."
[13] The people have a tradition that a well of sweet water exists unseen
in some part of the island. When Saad el Din was besieged in Zayla by the
Hatze David, the host of El Islam suffered severely for the want of the
fresh element.
[14] The singular is Dankali, the plural Danakil: both words are Arabic,
the vernacular name being "Afar" or "Afer," the Somali "Afarnimun." The
word is pronounced like the Latin "Afer," an African.
[15] Occasionally at Zayla--where all animals are expensive--Dankali
camels may be bought: though small, they resist hardship and fatigue
better than the other kinds. A fair price would be about ten dollars. The
Somal divide their animals into two kinds, Gel Ad and Ayyun. The former is
of white colour, loose and weak, but valuable, I was told by Lieut. Speke,
in districts where little water is found: the Ayyun is darker and
stronger; its price averages about a quarter more than the Gel Ad.
