During the day a good deal of washing took place, all the Bedouins and camel-men taking this opportunity of washing their fotahs and body-clothes. For cleansing-troughs they dug small holes in the soil, which they half filled with water, and added thereto straw, or a few handsful of fresh camels’ dung, as a substitute for soap. I found Zaido had carefully collected, during the last few days, a mat-bag full of the same kind of commodity, the produce of my mule, which he had very carefully stowed away for this purpose, as he said it was far superior in its cleansing properties to the camels’ dung. A regular washing day now made the whole place alive; every body seemed anxious to be in white apparel, and in succeeding lots, they took possession of the holes. They commenced by well saturating their clothes in the dirty composition, kneading them with their hands, and when tired of that, stamping them with their feet. The clothes being then taken out, were well rinsed in the neighbouring pond, and being opened out, a critical view was taken of their condition, which, if not satisfactory, a repetition of all these operations followed. After all this, they were dried and bleached in the sun, and were certainly much improved in appearance by the process of ablution they had undergone. The lively character of the scene altogether had a beneficial effect upon me, and I felt again enjoying the life I was leading. I also anticipated some shooting the next day, and cleaned my guns in preparation, in which operation I was assisted by Zaido and Allee, who managed by some nonsense or other to derange the action of the locks of my carbine, for in their anxiety to prove themselves fitting attendants in the chase, they persisted in exhibiting their knowledge of firearms, by attempting to let the hammer of the lock gently down upon the nipple in the process of uncocking. This difficult operation bothered them a great deal, and the result was that, much to their discomfiture, and my displeasure, they materially injured one lock, to repair which cost me a deal of time and trouble. The evening I spent talking with Allee respecting a great fight, which some three or four years before, had taken place between the Assa-hemerah Muditu and the other Dankalli tribes coalesced against them, in which contest several hundreds were slain, and near to the scene of which we should pass during our journey.
As night came on, a large feast of boiled rice and dates was prepared for a considerable number of the Muditu, who had come into camp, and were, as usual, demanding some present on the occasion of our passing through their country. They came in so late, however, that they were not aware of my presence; and consequently, did not come near me that evening. Ohmed Mahomed being engaged with them till nearly midnight, I closed the entrance of my hut with mats to prevent the intrusion of any home or foreign Bedouins, and was soon fast asleep.
Thursday, 7th.—This morning I was awakened rather unpleasantly by a heavy shower of rain, which, penetrating my carpet-roof, soon wet me completely through. I got out, and retreated to the thick cover of a low mimosa-tree, over which some of the Bedouins threw my carpet, and as many as could be covered by its shelter came and sat close around me. A stream of thick muddy water suddenly came into existence, hundreds of small rills issuing from every hill top, filling the hollow below our camp almost immediately, and where a few hours before we walked and the camels fed, a river too deep to ford, and above forty feet wide, rushed with great impetuosity into the ravine we travelled along yesterday. A camel having died in the night, a party of the drivers on the occasion of this flood appearing, dragged the body into the influence of its current which soon carried it away. One of its tributaries, a brook of considerable size, very shortly afterwards made its way through the centre of our camp, and actually turned one of the boxes over before some dams of stones, and a small canal, could be made to direct its course in another direction, so that the water should not damage the stores, or the numerous bags of salt that had been unfairly added to the burdens of our camels at the salt lake.
In this miserable manner I spent nearly the whole day, crouching on my heels beneath the tree, and anxiously endeavouring to prevent my firearms being rendered useless by the wet; and it was with no small degree of pleasure that a little before three o’clock, I saw the rain ceasing as suddenly as it commenced, the sun come out, and the volume and force of the river rapidly diminish. The wet clothes were now stretched upon the ground, or on the tops of the dwarf shrubs, of which, in this favoured spot, great numbers were growing. My bed of mats, my cloak, plaid, and carpet, in a very short time were perfectly dry, and I was once more made comfortable in my retreat, but with the most dismal forebodings of fever, and all the other evils which exposure to damp and moisture in hot countries are apt to engender, and from the bad effects of which I had only so recently recovered. After the very evident depression occasioned amongst the Kafilah men by the rain during the day, the warm and welcome sunshine of the few hours before sunset, brought about a re-action amongst them, and when they had retired to their mats for the night, another of their farcical conversations was carried on by several distant individuals of the camp, who shouted aloud their observations, whilst the laughing accompaniment of their companions proved the zest with which they enjoyed this evident encounter of some rival wits.
April 8th.—This morning, the loud voice of Garahmee called us to saddle and march two hours before sunrise, and, surprised at his assumption of this part of the duties of the Ras, I began to be afraid that Garahmee’s bold bearing, combined with his talents for finesse, had placed him at the head of the Kafilah, although not possessing himself a camel, or a single bag of salt. On inquiring from the timid whispering Zaido, I found this to be the case, and that Garahmee had taken the command partly from the want of decision and partly from the wish to avoid a contest with him, not only of Ohmed Mahomed, but of all the rest of the Kafilah men. Besides, Garahmee was supported by his four Hy Soumaulee brothers, who were quite sufficient to impose submission upon the peaceably disposed people of Tajourah, who had everything to lose by a collision with them. It was Garahmee’s object now to hurry on our Kafilah to prevent it being joined by another, which had arrived after us, and was then loading with salt at Assal, and messengers from which had arrived in our camp during the night, to request Ohmed Mahomed to remain where we were at Allulee for it to join us, and proceed together.
Many of our camels were already loaded, and all had been collected for the same purpose, but very reluctantly by their owners, as the designs of Garahmee were fully understood, when all at once a general rush was made for spears and shields, Ohmed Mahomed calling hastily upon me to bring my guns, and take my place with the rest in a line of defence which was formed a few yards from my hut. The women, all collected together, were crying out “koo, koo, koo,” in a long-continued strain, whilst the men brandished their spears with loud cries of defiance. Garahmee, Moosa, and Adam Burrah performed the usual stamping pas de trois in front, and a man with the most ludicrous gravity, armed with spear and shield, dancing round and round, with a very small and slow step, from one extremity of the semicircle to the other, completed the scene on our side of the preparations made on the occasion of this sudden commotion. Before I made these observations, however, Zaido, the black colour of whose cheeks was now changed to a motley grey, pointed out to me about an equal number of Muditu, assembled upon the irregular slope of the opposite side of the valley, who were approaching in a close compact body, and not in the straggling manner as did the Bursane Bedouins on the previous occasion. Every one of our party anticipated a certain attack, and each had provided himself with a large fragment of rock, which was to precede the hurling of the spear. As the enemy approached very rapidly, and was now but a few hundred yards off, every one of my party called upon me to step out and fire. I stood up immediately for that purpose, and directly they saw me, the whole body of the Muditu came to a sudden halt as if astonished at the unexpected appearance of a white man, with the deadly character of whose weapons they were well acquainted, as in one engagement, when a party of the very same tribe had come down upon a Feringee Kafilah at the same place, two of them were shot dead by the party who accompanied it, and who, from several reasons, I believe to have been Kielmeyer, the well-known German adventurer, who was returning to Abyssinia, where he had long resided, and who was killed, according to some accounts, but by others, reported to have died a natural death of fever, at Killaloo, a few days’ journey farther inland.
On the present occasion, the Muditu did not hesitate long what to do, but immediately squatted down in a manner similar to ourselves, on the spot where they had halted, and there we were sitting two hours, without either party taking farther steps, for Ohmed Mahomed, upon seeing them thus checked, pulled me down again by his side, and I was well content not to be obliged to shed blood, unless absolutely forced by the most extreme necessity. Some few of our Kafilah men now went and loosened the ropes that fastened the legs of the tethered camels, it being far too late in the day, even had not arrangements now to be made with the assembled Muditu, for us to think of starting, and no interruption was offered to the men engaged in driving out the camels to forage for the remainder of the day. Opportunities of peaceful advances being made having thus offered, I soon found Ohmed Mahomed and Ebin Izaak, attended by Garahmee, retire beneath some, mimosa-trees, where they were joined first, by several Muditu women, who had followed their male friends to the rencontre, and who, it seems, came down here to invite our leaders to a conference, but as Ohmed Mahomed himself had a blood feud with some of the tribe unsettled, he was obliged to retire, leaving the management of the business to the politic Garahmee and the young and not very talented Ebin Izaak. The former, however, was quite sufficient for the purposes required; but whilst I was glad of our being obliged to remain now for the other Kafilah from the Salt Lake, I could not help regretting the importance which circumstances seemed to be conferring upon Garahmee, who, I was convinced, was greatly mistrusted by Ohmed Mahomed, and who, if he had obtained the power of controlling our movements, would, in the end, have certainly occasioned the loss of the stores, and put an end to all my expectations of discoveries in Africa in a very summary and disagreeable manner.
Two bags of rice, all my private stock of dates, and three pieces of blue Surat calico, were our compromise for a safe passage through the country of this tribe, with the understanding, that none of the Muditu of that party should come nearer than what they were to our camp, but that the rice and dates should be cooked and eaten on their own halting-spot. Having agreed to all this, peace was proclaimed by Garahmee shouting in the midst of the Kafilah for every one to return to his charge, either of salt or stores, for the day. I crept into my hut covered with glory, for Zaido and Allee, and a number of other idlers of the camp came laughing, though very quietly, as if they were half afraid of the Muditu hearing them, even at the distance they were. Pointing with a slight gesture, the thumb turned back over the shoulder, in the direction of the feasting enemy, they nodded at the gun on the ground, and then laughed again, evidently as well pleased as myself at the bloodless victory we had obtained by moral force alone.
Although, among other stipulations, none of the Muditu were to come within a certain distance of our camp, a great many of their women came begging tobacco and needles from me, tapping their lips, in mute astonishment at my novel appearance, as they stooped down, looking into my den, as if I had been some wild beast, caught and encaged for their amusement.
A chief also was allowed to bring down to my hut, as a token of peace and good will, a very fine sheep, for which I gave him some brass wire and a little powder, which he asked for to dress a severe wound upon the neck he had recently received in fight, it being a popular idea among the Dankalli tribes, that nothing will cure a flesh wound so quickly, as gunpowder sprinkled upon the divided parts.