But I Have Made A Rule Always To Doubt What Semi-Barbarians
Write.
Writing is the great source of historical confusion, because
falsehoods accumulate in books, persons are confounded, and fictions
assume, as in the mythologic genealogies of India, Persia, Greece, and
Rome, a regular and systematic form.
On the other hand, oral tradition is
more trustworthy; witness the annals and genealogies preserved in verse by
the Bhats of Cutch, the Arab Nassab, and the Bards of Belochistan.
_30th November_.--The Sultan took leave of Lieutenant Speke, and the
latter prepared to march in company with the Abban, the interpreter, the
Sultan's two sons, and a large party. By throwing the tent down and
sitting in the sun he managed to effect a move. In the evening the camels
started from Adhai up a gradual ascent along a strong path. The way was
covered with bush, jungle, and trees. The frankincense, it is said,
abounded; gum trees of various kinds were found; and the traveller
remarked a single stunted sycamore growing out of a rock. I found the tree
in all the upper regions of the Somali country, and abundant in the Harar
Hills. After two miles' march the caravan halted at Habal Ishawalay, on
the northern side of the mountains, within three miles of the crest. The
halting-ground was tolerably level, and not distant from the waters of
Adhai, the only spring in the vicinity. The travellers slept in a deserted
Kraal, surrounded by a stout fence of Acacia thorns heaped up to keep out
the leopards and hyenas.
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