This was a very short march, the halting-place, Segallo, not being more than half an hour, or one and a-half miles from Dulhull. Ohmed Mahomed endeavoured to allay my disappointment by saying we should start again at night; but of course I did not believe him. I remained in my hut, which was made as usual, all day, not feeling very well; in the evening, however, I strolled from the low jungle that here skirts the sea, and in which our camp was made, to the beach, where I amused myself observing some sea-gulls that exhibited no little sagacity in the manner in which they obtained their food. All along the Bay of Tajourah the small hermit crab abounds, and formed, I should suppose, from what I saw, the principal prey of these birds. It would be a difficult thing to get at this kind of Crustacea, with all the means that seagulls can command; but instinct has taught them to have recourse to a method of unshelling the crabs that certainly I should not have thought of. Seizing the one they intend to operate upon, they fly up to the height of ten or twelve feet, and letting it drop it naturally falls on the heaviest, or topside of the shell. Before the little animal can recover itself, the gull has caught it again, and flying up with it the same height as before, he lets it drop a second time, and so he continues till the repeated falls have fractured the shell, and he gets at the animal without further trouble. It takes ten or twelve of these short flights to accomplish the object, but it never fails; and as the birds are certainly patterns of perseverance in their pursuit, they get, no doubt, a good living in this very singular manner. Besides this instance of their sagacity, I have seen gulls over and over again defeat the attempts of the hawk to pounce upon them, by making a very successful but very unusual flight for them, which was to vie with the hawk himself in the elevation he was obliged to take for the success of his swoop. In such cases they seek not to shun the butcher of their kind, but following him in each gyration he makes, afford him no opportunity of attack, and soon tire him out. I was called away from my musing occupation by Moosa, who came with a great deal of mystery to inform me of something that he was not quite able to tell me, but on returning with him to the camp, I found two boxes had been broken, during the short march from Dulhull, by falling from the back of the camel. I was requested to put them to rights, as driving nails was what the Dankalli did not understand. My carpentering amused them very much; and the job being settled to their satisfaction, I adjourned to my hut and turned in for the night.
April 1st.—We were up very early this morning, at least one hour before sunrise, and all started together for Daddahue, or Wadalissan, two different names that were given me for the next halt. I was desired to keep with the Kafilah, for fear of our being attacked, and also informed that it would be near mid-day before we should arrive at the encamping ground.
Our first hour’s march lay along the sea-shore, which was of the same character as yesterday, but I observed great quantities of sponge washed high upon the beach, and picked up some very good specimens. Pebbles of a beautiful opaline chalcedony were very common, and with the coral and rich pearly shells of some large bivalve, would have been sufficient foundation for an imaginative fancy to have here described a very bright pavement of fairy land.
Leaving the sea-coast, we entered a narrow gully, or dry bed of a stream, overhung by a thick jungle of different kinds of shrubs and bushes. The road thus naturally formed, was most wretched to travel upon, being strewed with blocks of black lava, of all shapes and sizes. We continued along its serpentine channel for nearly two hours; and it would have been useless to have endeavoured to find another road, for the surface of the adjoining country on either side was in a much worse condition; besides, the thick thorny bushes presented insurmountable obstacles in every direction save the watercourses we followed. We at length arrived at a gorge, or narrow pass, where it appeared as if the collected waters of some large reservoir had at a former period broken through a wall of lava, and thus escaped to the neighbouring sea, spreading over the intervening ground the debris of its forced passage. This remarkable looking spot was called Galla Lafue, from a tree of a very singular character, which abounds in this neighbourhood. It is about six feet high, its leaves thick, smooth, and fleshy, covered with a silvery down on the underside, and of a pale green above. It bore a large purple and white flower, the bark was of a light grey colour, and abounded with a white acid juice. That it was employed in any manner amongst the Dankalli for medicine, I could not learn. It only grows in the beds of temporary streams. I met with it first at Dulhull, on the sea-shore, and have seen it also in more elevated situations in Abyssinia.
The pass of Galla Lafue is not more than three hundred yards long, and winds between high perpendicular and flat-topped rocks of black lava. Its greatest width did not extend thirty yards. Gnawed bones were strewn about, on several parts, and on looking up I saw the low cave of a wild beast, whose traces were too recent to leave any doubt of it having only retired upon our approach. We soon emerged from this narrow ravine, and then passed along some broken ground of irregular heaps of boulders and stones, that reminded me of the bottom of some former lake, situated in a country where the fierce rush of water had only allowed the heavier debris of the surrounding rocks to accumulate; and of this character, I should imagine, was the bursting torrent that at last had made its escape through the pass of Galla Lafue into the sea.
The Kafilah did not proceed in the direction of the dry stony bed, but turning to the left hand, ascended the sloping banks, which at this point assumed a less precipitous character than immediately in the pass.
Some of the camel-drivers and Bedouins went, however, to pools of water in the neighbourhood, and filled their affaleetahs, small neatly-made kid-skin bags, one of which it is necessary every traveller should be provided with, and which, when not in use, is rolled closely up and carried, hanging from the handle of the shield. Mine hung from my saddle-bow, and I generally took care to have it filled before we started in the morning. To-day, however, as I walked with a crowd of the natives, I did not wait for my lagging mule, but refreshed myself, when thirsty, at the little cup-like depressions in the cellular blocks of lava that had been filled by a shower of rain the preceding night, but which had not extended to our camp at Seggallo. We crossed an extensive plain of loose volcanic stones, where we marched as if we were passing upon stepping-stones over some brook in England, and as this uneasy kind of walking was compulsory for some hours, it became very tiresome, and I felt a great relief when we came to a district which did afford a little more opportunity for some stunted and straggling mimosa-trees to bloom, but with a very melancholy dirty green verdure. Our path was here greatly improved, but just as I was congratulating myself upon the change, and thinking I should be able to continue walking another hour or two, we came upon the Kafilah, which had started the day before us from Dulhull, and to whose farther advance some obstacle had arisen. This induced Ohmed Mahomed, our Ras, to halt here also, and in the course of the day I was enabled to learn the cause of our detention, which had surprised me; for, but a short time before we halted, Ohmed had told me, with evident sincerity, that he intended us to proceed for two more hours.
The camels being unloaded, my hut was built as usual, into which I retired with some pleasure, the day having been exceedingly hot, and the long fatiguing march of at least five hours, had completely wearied me. I slept for two or three hours, when Ohmed Mahomed came and awakened me, to ask me to load my guns and pistols, as the Bedouins were collecting on the opposite height to oppose our farther progress. I always kept my carbine, and three waist-pistols in readiness for such anticipated occasions, but on this intimation I soon charged, in addition, a fowling-piece I had with me, and also produced two other holster pistols from my saddle-bags.
It was now nearly three o’clock, and a slight sea-breeze blowing over the land, cooled the air, whilst groups of our merchants and camel-drivers were performing their afternoon prayers. A valley at least three miles broad stretched from north to south as far as the eye could reach. From our low position, we could not see anything above the level line of the flat top parallel banks which, not sixty feet high, sloped gently into the plain below. The banks were of rough loose stones of a very large size, but the plain consisted of rich alluvial soil, which supported by its produce the flocks of one of the largest tribes in the neighbourhood of Tajourah, the Bursane Bedouins, and the fighting men of whom had now gathered for the purpose, as they avowed, of plundering the Kafilah, and destroying the white man who accompanied it.
As the prayers went on amongst our people, the loud whooping of the collecting tribe was answered by my Hy Soumaulee escort, who stood upon the slope on our right, and facing that upon which were our opponents. Garahmee, Moosa Gra, and Adam Burrah, spear and shield in hand, leaped round and round, yelling with every bound, and then with lesser jumps, seemed to trample upon the body of some fallen foe. Whilst jumping in this manner, Adam Burrah fell down, and rolling over and over, was very much bruised.