The Soori Boats Are Generally The Last To
Leave, And By The First Week In April, Berbera Is Again Deserted,
Nothing
being left to mark the site of a town lately containing 20,000
inhabitants, beyond bones of slaughtered camels
And sheep, and the
framework of a few huts, which is carefully piled on the beach in
readiness for the ensuing year. Beasts of prey now take the opportunity to
approach the sea: lions are commonly seen at the town well during the hot
weather; and in April last year, but a week after the fair had ended, I
observed three ostriches quietly walking on the beach." [5]
Of the origin of Berberah little is known. El Firuzabadi derives it, with
great probability, from two Himyar chiefs of Southern Arabia. [6] About
A.D. 522 the troops of Anushirwan expelled the Abyssinians from Yemen, and
re-established there a Himyari prince under vassalage of the Persian
Monarch. Tradition asserts the port to have been occupied in turns by the
Furs [7], the Arabs, the Turks, the Gallas, and the Somal. And its future
fortunes are likely to be as varied as the past.
The present decadence of Berberah is caused by petty internal feuds.
Gerhajis the eldest son of Ishak el Hazrami, seized the mountain ranges of
Gulays and Wagar lying about forty miles behind the coast, whilst Awal,
the cadet, established himself and his descendants upon the lowlands from
Berberah to Zayla. Both these powerful tribes assert a claim to the
customs and profits of the port on the grounds that they jointly conquered
it from the Gallas.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 367 of 479
Words from 98133 to 98401
of 128411
