We Therefore Dismissed The Hired
Beasts, Carried Our Property Into A Deserted Kraal, And, Lighting A Fire,
Prepared To "Make All Snug" For The Night.
The Bedouins, chattering with
cold, stood closer to the comfortable blaze than ever did pater familias
in England:
They smoked their faces, toasted their hands, broiled their
backs with intense enjoyment, and waved their legs to and fro through the
flame to singe away the pile, which at this season grows long. The End of
Time, who was surly, compared them to demons, and quoted the Arab's
saying:--"Allah never bless smooth man, or hairy woman!" On the 8th of
December, at 8 A.M., we travelled slowly up the Halimalah Valley, whose
clayey surface glistened with mica and quartz pebbles from the hills. All
the trees are thorny except the Sycamore and the Asclepias. The Gub, or
Jujube, grows luxuriantly in thickets: its dried wood is used by women to
fumigate their hair [19]: the Kedi, a tree like the porcupine,--all
spikes,--supplies the Bedouins with hatchet-handles. I was shown the Abol
with its edible gum, and a kind of Acacia, here called Galol. Its bark
dyes cloth a dull red, and the thorn issues from a bulb which, when young
and soft, is eaten by the Somal, when old it becomes woody, and hard as a
nut. At 9 A.M. we crossed the Lesser Abbaso, a Fiumara with high banks of
stiff clay and filled with large rolled stones: issuing from it, we
traversed a thorny path over ascending ground between higher hills, and
covered with large boulders and step-like layers of grit. Here appeared
several Gudabirsi tombs, heaps of stones or pebbles, surrounded by a fence
of thorns, or an enceinte of loose blocks: in the latter, slabs are used
to make such houses as children would build in play, to denote the number
of establishments left by the deceased. The new grave is known by the
conical milk-pails surmounting the stick at the head of the corpse, upon
the neighbouring tree is thrown the mat which bore the dead man to his
last home, and hard by are the blackened stones upon which his funeral
feast was cooked. At 11 A.M. we reached the Greater Abbaso, a Fiumara
about 100 yards wide, fringed with lovely verdure and full of the antelope
called Gurnuk: its watershed was, as usual in this region, from west and
south-west to east and north-east. About noon we halted, having travelled
eight miles from the Holy Tree.
At half past three reloading we followed the course of the Abbaso Valley,
the most beautiful spot we had yet seen. The presence of mankind, however,
was denoted by the cut branches of thorn encumbering the bed: we remarked
too, the tracks of lions pursued by hunters, and the frequent streaks of
serpents, sometimes five inches in diameter. Towards evening, our party
closed up in fear, thinking that they saw spears glancing through the
trees: I treated their alarm lightly, but the next day proved that it was
not wholly imaginary. At sunset we met a shepherd who swore upon the stone
[20] to bring us milk in exchange for tobacco, and presently, after a five
miles' march, we halted in a deserted kraal on the left bank of a Fiumara.
Clouds gathered black upon the hill tops, and a comfortless blast,
threatening rain, warned us not to delay pitching the Gurgi. A large fire
was lighted, and several guns were discharged to frighten away the lions
that infest this place. Twice during the night our camels started up and
rushed round their thorn ring in alarm.
* * * * *
Late in the morning of Saturday, the 9th December, I set out, accompanied
by Rirash and the End of Time, to visit some ruins a little way distant
from the direct road. After an hour's ride we turned away from the Abbaso
Fiumara and entered a basin among the hills distant about sixteen miles
from the Holy Tree. This is the site of Darbiyah Kola,--Kola's Fort,--so
called from its Galla queen. It is said that this city and its neighbour
Aububah fought like certain cats in Kilkenny till both were "eaten up:"
the Gudabirsi fix the event at the period when their forefathers still
inhabited Bulhar on the coast,--about 300 years ago. If the date be
correct, the substantial ruins have fought a stern fight with time.
Remnants of houses cumber the soil, and the carefully built wells are
filled with rubbish: the palace was pointed out to me with its walls of
stone and clay intersected by layers of woodwork. The mosque is a large
roofless building containing twelve square pillars of rude masonry, and
the Mihrab, or prayer niche, is denoted by a circular arch of tolerable
construction. But the voice of the Muezzin is hushed for ever, and
creepers now twine around the ruined fane. The scene was still and dreary
as the grave; for a mile and a half in length all was ruins--ruins--ruins.
Leaving this dead city, we rode towards the south-west between two rugged
hills of which the loftiest summit is called Wanauli. As usual they are
rich in thorns: the tall "Wadi" affords a gum useful to cloth-dyers, and
the leaves of the lofty Wumba are considered, after the Daum-palm, the
best material for mats. On the ground appeared the blue flowers of the
"Man" or "Himbah," a shrub resembling a potatoe: it bears a gay yellow
apple full of brown seeds which is not eaten by the Somal. My companions
made me taste some of the Karir berries, which in color and flavor
resemble red currants: the leaves are used as a dressing to ulcers.
Topping the ridge we stood for a few minutes to observe the view before
us. Beneath our feet lay a long grassy plain-the sight must have gladdened
the hearts of our starving mules!--and for the first time in Africa horses
appeared grazing free amongst the bushes.
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