They Receive For Pay One Dollar's Worth Of Holcus Per
Annum, A Quantity Sufficient To Afford Five Or Six Loaves A Day:
The
luxuries of life must be provided by the exercise of some peaceful craft.
Including slaves, the total of armed men may be two hundred:
Of these one
carries a Somali or Galla spear, another a dagger, and a third a sword,
which is generally the old German cavalry blade. Cannon of small calibre
is supposed to be concealed in the palace, but none probably knows their
use. The city may contain thirty horses, of which a dozen are royal
property: they are miserable ponies, but well trained to the rocks and
hills. The Galla Bedouins would oppose an invader with a strong force of
spearmen, the approaches to the city are difficult and dangerous, but it
is commanded from the north and west, and the walls would crumble at the
touch of a six-pounder. Three hundred Arabs and two gallopper guns would
take Harar in an hour.
Harar is essentially a commercial town: its citizens live, like those of
Zayla, by systematically defrauding the Galla Bedouins, and the Amir has
made it a penal offence to buy by weight and scale. He receives, as
octroi, from eight to fifteen cubits of Cutch canvass for every donkey-
load passing the gates, consequently the beast is so burdened that it must
be supported by the drivers. Cultivators are taxed ten per cent., the
general and easy rate of this part of Africa, but they pay in kind, which
considerably increases the Government share.
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