"Ask Not From The Hindi Thy Want:
Impossible That The Hindi Can Be Generous!
Had There Been One Liberal Man In El Hind,
Allah Had Raised Up A Prophet In El Hind!"
They have all the levity and instability of the Negro character; light-
minded as the Abyssinians,--described by Gobat as constant in nothing but
inconstancy,--soft, merry, and affectionate souls, they pass without any
apparent transition into a state of fury, when they are capable of
terrible atrocities.
At Aden they appear happier than in their native
country. There I have often seen a man clapping his hands and dancing,
childlike, alone to relieve the exuberance of his spirits: here they
become, as the Mongols and other pastoral people, a melancholy race, who
will sit for hours upon a bank gazing at the moon, or croning some old
ditty under the trees. This state is doubtless increased by the perpetual
presence of danger and the uncertainty of life, which make them think of
other things but dancing and singing. Much learning seems to make them
mad; like the half-crazy Fakihs of the Sahara in Northern Africa, the
Widad, or priest, is generally unfitted for the affairs of this world, and
the Hafiz or Koran-reciter, is almost idiotic. As regards courage, they
are no exception to the generality of savage races. They have none of the
recklessness standing in lieu of creed which characterises the civilised
man. In their great battles a score is considered a heavy loss; usually
they will run after the fall of half a dozen: amongst a Kraal full of
braves who boast a hundred murders, not a single maimed or wounded man
will be seen, whereas in an Arabian camp half the male population will
bear the marks of lead and steel. The bravest will shirk fighting if he
has forgotten his shield: the sight of a lion and the sound of a gun
elicit screams of terror, and their Kaum or forays much resemble the style
of tactics rendered obsolete by the Great Turenne, when the tactician's
chief aim was not to fall in with his enemy. Yet they are by no means
deficient in the wily valour of wild men: two or three will murder a
sleeper bravely enough; and when the passions of rival tribes, between
whom there has been a blood feud for ages, are violently excited, they
will use with asperity the dagger and spear. Their massacres are fearful.
In February, 1847, a small sept, the Ayyal Tunis, being expelled from
Berberah, settled at the roadstead of Bulhar, where a few merchants,
principally Indian and Arab, joined them. The men were in the habit of
leaving their women and children, sick and aged, at the encampment inland,
whilst, descending to the beach, they carried on their trade. One day, as
they were thus employed, unsuspicious of danger, a foraging party of about
2500 Eesas attacked the camp: men, women, and children were
indiscriminately put to the spear, and the plunderers returned to their
villages in safety, laden with an immense amount of booty. At present, a
man armed with a revolver would be a terror to the country; the day,
however, will come when the matchlock will supersede the assegai, and then
the harmless spearman in his strong mountains will become, like the Arab,
a formidable foe. Travelling among the Bedouins, I found them kind and
hospitable. A pinch of snuff or a handful of tobacco sufficed to win every
heart, and a few yards of coarse cotton cloth supplied all our wants, I
was petted like a child, forced to drink milk and to eat mutton; girls
were offered to me in marriage; the people begged me to settle amongst
them, to head their predatory expeditions, free them from lions, and kill
their elephants; and often a man has exclaimed in pitying accents, "What
hath brought thee, delicate as thou art, to sit with us on the cowhide in
this cold under a tree?" Of course they were beggars, princes and paupers,
lairds and loons, being all equally unfortunate; the Arabs have named the
country Bilad Wa Issi,--the "Land of Give me Something;"--but their wants
were easily satisfied, and the open hand always made a friend.
The Somal hold mainly to the Shafei school of El Islam: their principal
peculiarity is that of not reciting prayers over the dead even in the
towns. The marriage ceremony is simple: the price of the bride and the
feast being duly arranged, the formula is recited by some priest or
pilgrim. I have often been requested to officiate on these occasions, and
the End of Time has done it by irreverently reciting the Fatihah over the
happy pair. [18] The Somal, as usual amongst the heterogeneous mass
amalgamated by El Islam, have a diversity of superstitions attesting their
Pagan origin. Such for instance are their oaths by stones, their reverence
of cairns and holy trees, and their ordeals of fire and water, the Bolungo
of Western Africa. A man accused of murder or theft walks down a trench
full of live charcoal and about a spear's length, or he draws out of the
flames a smith's anvil heated to redness: some prefer picking four or five
cowries from a large pot full of boiling water. The member used is at once
rolled up in the intestines of a sheep and not inspected for a whole day.
They have traditionary seers called Tawuli, like the Greegree-men of
Western Africa, who, by inspecting the fat and bones of slaughtered
cattle, "do medicine," predict rains, battles, and diseases of animals.
This class is of both sexes: they never pray or bathe, and are therefore
considered always impure; thus, being feared, they are greatly respected
by the vulgar. Their predictions are delivered in a rude rhyme, often put
for importance into the mouth of some deceased seer. During the three
months called Rajalo [19] the Koran is not read over graves, and no
marriage ever takes place.
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