This Is Probably The Reason Why Vegetables Are
Unknown, And Why A Horse, A Mule, Or Even A Dog, Is Not To Be Found In The
Place.
[30] "Fid-mer," or the evening flyer, is the Somali name for a bat.
These
little animals are not disturbed in houses, because they keep off flies
and mosquitoes, the plagues of the Somali country. Flies abound in the
very jungles wherever cows have been, and settle in swarms upon the
traveller. Before the monsoon their bite is painful, especially that of
the small green species; and there is a red variety called "Diksi as,"
whose venom, according to the people, causes them to vomit. The latter
abounds in Gulays and the hill ranges of the Berberah country: it is
innocuous during the cold season. The mosquito bites bring on, according
to the same authority, deadly fevers: the superstition probably arises
from the fact that mosquitoes and fevers become formidable about the same
time.
[31] Such a building at Zayla would cost at most 500 dollars. At Aden,
2000 rupees, or nearly double the sum, would be paid for a matted shed,
which excludes neither sun, nor wind, nor rain.
CHAP. II.
LIFE IN ZAYLA.
I will not weary you, dear L., with descriptions of twenty-six quiet,
similar, uninteresting days,--days of sleep, and pipes, and coffee,--spent
at Zayla, whilst a route was traced out, guides were propitiated, camels
were bought, mules sent for, and all the wearisome preliminaries of
African travel were gone through.
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