The Issue, However, Two
Infant Sons, Were Murdered By The Eesa Bedouins.
Whenever he meets his
father in the morning, he kisses his hand, and receives a salute upon the
forehead.
He aspires to the government of Zayla, and looks forward more
reasonably than the Hajj to the day when the possession of Berberah will
pour gold into his coffers. He shows none of his father's "softness:" he
advocates the bastinado, and, to keep his people at a distance, he has
married an Arab wife, who allows no adult to enter the doors. The Somal,
Spaniard-like, remark, "He is one of ourselves, though a little richer;"
but when times change and luck returns, they are not unlikely to find
themselves mistaken.
Amongst other visitors, we have the Amir el Bahr, or Port Captain, and the
Nakib el Askar (_Commandant de place_), Mohammed Umar el Hamumi. This is
one of those Hazramaut adventurers so common in all the countries
bordering upon Arabia: they are the Swiss of the East, a people equally
brave and hardy, frugal and faithful, as long as pay is regular. Feared by
the soft Indians and Africans for their hardness and determination, the
common proverb concerning them is, "If you meet a viper and a Hazrami,
spare the viper." Natives of a poor and rugged region, they wander far and
wide, preferring every country to their own; and it is generally said that
the sun rises not upon a land that does not contain a man from Hazramaut.
[8] This commander of an army of forty men [9] often read out to us from
the Kitab el Anwar (the Book of Lights) the tale of Abu Jahl, that Judas
of El Islam made ridiculous.
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