The tumult redoubled. The people attributing the rescript to the English
and French Consuls of Jeddah, insisted upon pulling down their flags. The
Pasha took them under his protection, and on the 14th January, 1856, the
"Queen" steamer was despatched from Bombay, with orders to assist the
government and to suppress the contest.
[36] This weight, as usual in the East, varies at every port. At Aden the
Farasilah is 27 lbs., at Zayla 20 lbs., and at Berberah 35 lbs.
[37] See Chap. iii. El Makrizi, describing the kingdom of Zayla, uses the
Harari not the Arabic term; he remarks that it is unknown to Egypt and
Syria, and compares its leaf to that of the orange.
[38] In conversational Arabic "we" is used without affectation for "I."
[39] The Shaykh himself gave me this information. As a rule it is most
imprudent for Europeans holding high official positions in these barbarous
regions, to live as they do, unarmed and unattended. The appearance of
utter security may impose, where strong motives for assassination are
wanting. At the same time the practice has occasioned many losses which
singly, to use an Indian statesman's phrase, would have "dimmed a
victory."
[40] In the best coffee countries, Harar and Yemen, the berry is reserved
for exportation. The Southern Arabs use for economy and health--the bean
being considered heating--the Kishr or follicle. This in Harar is a
woman's drink. The men considering the berry too dry and heating for their
arid atmosphere, toast the leaf on a girdle, pound it and prepare an
infusion which they declare to be most wholesome, but which certainly
suggests weak senna. The boiled coffee-leaf has been tried and approved of
in England; we omit, however, to toast it.
[41] In Harar a horse or a mule is never lost, whereas an ass straying
from home is rarely seen again.
[42] This is the Abyssinian "Tej," a word so strange to European organs,
that some authors write it "Zatsh." At Harar it is made of honey dissolved
in about fifteen parts of hot water, strained and fermented for seven days
with the bark of a tree called Kudidah; when the operation is to be
hurried, the vessel is placed near the fire. Ignorant Africa can ferment,
not distil, yet it must be owned she is skilful in her rude art. Every
traveller has praised the honey-wine of the Highlands, and some have not
scrupled to prefer it to champagne. It exhilarates, excites and acts as an
aphrodisiac; the consequence is, that at Harar all men, pagans and sages,
priests and rulers, drink it.
[43] The Caliph Umar is said to have smiled once and wept once. The smile
was caused by the recollection of his having eaten his paste-gods in the
days of ignorance. The tear was shed in remembrance of having buried
alive, as was customary amongst the Pagan Arabs, his infant daughter, who,
whilst he placed her in the grave, with her little hands beat the dust off
his beard and garment.
[44] The Eastern parent of Free-Masonry.
[45] Two celebrated Arabic dictionaries.
CHAP. IX.
A RIDE TO BERBERAH.
Long before dawn on Saturday, the 13th January, the mules were saddled,
bridled, and charged with our scanty luggage. After a hasty breakfast we
shook hands with old Sultan the Eunuch, mounted and pricked through the
desert streets. Suddenly my weakness and sickness left me--so potent a
drug is joy!--and, as we passed the gates loudly salaming to the warders,
who were crouching over the fire inside, a weight of care and anxiety fell
from me like a cloak of lead.
Yet, dear L., I had time, on the top of my mule for musing upon how
melancholy a thing is success. Whilst failure inspirits a man, attainment
reads the sad prosy lesson that all our glories
"Are shadows, not substantial things."
Truly said the sayer, "disappointment is the salt of life"--a salutary
bitter which strengthens the mind for fresh exertion, and gives a double
value to the prize.
This shade of melancholy soon passed away. The morning was beautiful. A
cloudless sky, then untarnished by sun, tinged with reflected blue the
mist-crowns of the distant peaks and the smoke wreaths hanging round the
sleeping villages, and the air was a cordial after the rank atmosphere of
the town. The dew hung in large diamonds from the coffee trees, the spur-
fowl crew blithely in the bushes by the way-side:--briefly, never did the
face of Nature appear to me so truly lovely.
We hurried forwards, unwilling to lose time and fearing the sun of the
Erar valley. With arms cocked, a precaution against the possibility of
Galla spears in ambuscade, we crossed the river, entered the yawning chasm
and ascended the steep path. My companions were in the highest spirits,
nothing interfered with the general joy, but the villain Abtidon, who
loudly boasted in a road crowded with market people, that the mule which
he was riding had been given to us by the Amir as a Jizyah or tribute. The
Hammal, direfully wrath, threatened to shoot him upon the spot, and it was
not without difficulty that I calmed the storm.
Passing Gafra we ascertained from the Midgans that the Gerad Adan had sent
for my books and stored them in his own cottage. We made in a direct line
for Kondura. At one P.M. we safely threaded the Galla's pass, and about an
hour afterwards we exclaimed "Alhamdulillah" at the sight of Sagharrah and
the distant Marar Prairie.
