The Somal Unhesitatingly
Stigmatize Them As A Bastard And Ignoble Race:
A noted genealogist once
informed me, that they were little better than Midgans or serviles.
Their
ancestors' mother, it is said, could not name the father of her child:
some proposed to slay it, others advocated its preservation, saying,
"Perhaps we shall increase by it!" Hence the name of the tribe. [40]
The Gudabirsi are such inveterate liars that I could fix for them no
number between 3000 and 10,000. They own the rough and rolling ground
diversified with thorny hill and grassy vale, above the first or seaward
range of mountains; and they have extended their lands by conquest towards
Harar, being now bounded in that direction by the Marar Prairie. As usual,
they are subdivided into a multitude of clans. [41]
In appearance the Gudabirsi are decidedly superior to their limitrophes
the Eesa. I have seen handsome faces amongst the men as well as the women.
Some approach closely to the Caucasian type: one old man, with olive-
coloured skin, bald brow, and white hair curling round his temples, and
occiput, exactly resembled an Anglo-Indian veteran. Generally, however,
the prognathous mouth betrays an African origin, and chewing tobacco mixed
with ashes stains the teeth, blackens the gums, and mottles the lips. The
complexion is the Abyssinian _cafe au lait_, contrasting strongly with the
sooty skins of the coast; and the hair, plentifully anointed with rancid
butter, hangs from the head in lank corkscrews the colour of a Russian
pointer's coat. The figure is rather squat, but broad and well set.
The Gudabirsi are as turbulent and unmanageable, though not so
bloodthirsty, as the Eesa. Their late chief, Ugaz Roblay of the Bait
Samattar sept, left children who could not hold their own: the turban was
at once claimed by a rival branch, the Rer Abdillah, and a civil war
ensued. The lovers of legitimacy will rejoice to hear that when I left the
country, Galla, son of the former Prince Rainy, was likely to come to his
own again.
The stranger's life is comparatively safe amongst this tribe: as long as
he feeds and fees them, he may even walk about unarmed. They are, however,
liars even amongst the Somal, Bobadils amongst boasters, inveterate
thieves, and importunate beggars. The smooth-spoken fellows seldom betray
emotion except when cloth or tobacco is concerned; "dissimulation is as
natural to them as breathing," and I have called one of their chiefs "dog"
without exciting his indignation.
The commerce of these wild regions is at present in a depressed state:
were the road safe, traffic with the coast would be considerable. The
profit on hides, for instance, at Aden, would be at least cent. per cent.:
the way, however, is dangerous, and detention is frequent, consequently
the gain will not remunerate for risk and loss of time. No operation can
be undertaken in a hurry, consequently demand cannot readily be supplied.
What Laing applies to Western, may be repeated of Eastern Africa: "the
endeavour to accelerate an undertaking is almost certain to occasion its
failure." Nowhere is patience more wanted, in order to perform perfect
work. The wealth of the Gudabirsi consists principally in cattle,
peltries, hides, gums, and ghee. The asses are dun-coloured, small, and
weak; the camels large, loose, and lazy; the cows are pretty animals, with
small humps, long horns, resembling the Damara cattle, and in the grazing
season with plump, well-rounded limbs; there is also a bigger breed, not
unlike that of Tuscany. The standard is the Tobe of coarse canvass; worth
about three shillings at Aden, here it doubles in value. The price of a
good camel varies from six to eight cloths; one Tobe buys a two-year-old
heifer, three, a cow between three and four years old. A ewe costs half a
cloth: the goat, although the flesh is according to the Somal nutritive,
whilst "mutton is disease," is a little cheaper than the sheep. Hides and
peltries are usually collected at and exported from Harar; on the coast
they are rubbed over with salt, and in this state carried to Aden. Cows'
skins fetch a quarter of a dollar, or about one shilling in cloth, and two
dollars are the extreme price for the Kurjah or score of goats' skins. The
people of the interior have a rude way of tanning [42]; they macerate the
hide, dress, and stain it of a deep calf-skin colour with the bark of a
tree called Jirmah, and lastly the leather is softened with the hand. The
principal gum is the Adad, or Acacia Arabica: foreign merchants purchase
it for about half a dollar per Farasilah of twenty pounds: cow's and
sheep's butter may fetch a dollar's worth of cloth for the measure of
thirty-two pounds. This great article of commerce is good and pure in the
country, whereas at Berberah, the Habr Awal adulterate it, previous to
exportation, with melted sheep's tails.
The principal wants of the country which we have traversed are coarse
cotton cloth, Surat tobacco, beads, and indigo-dyed stuffs for women's
coifs. The people would also be grateful for any improvement in their
breed of horses, and when at Aden I thought of taking with me some old
Arab stallions as presents to chiefs. Fortunately the project fell to the
ground: a strange horse of unusual size or beauty, in these regions, would
be stolen at the end of the first march.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Every hill and peak, ravine and valley, will be known by some striking
epithet: as Borad, the White Hill; Libahlay, the Lions' Mountain; and so
forth.
[2] The Arabs call it Kakatua, and consider it a species of parrot. The
name Cacatoes, is given by the Cape Boers, according to Delegorgue, to the
Coliphymus Concolor. The Gobiyan resembles in shape and flight our magpie,
it has a crest and a brown coat with patches of white, and a noisy note
like a frog.
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