The next morning I proposed hunting again, and the same party as yesterday started, but as we could get no opportunity of approaching the antelopes near enough for a shot, Himyah, of whose dexterity as a marksman I had had honourable evidence the day before, tried this morning his skill upon me, but fortunately, having no rest for his matchlock, the ball went some few inches over my head. The circumstances that occasioned this were most singular and accidental. Before us was a herd of about twenty Wydiddoo antelopes; their white faces, yellow sides, and black straight horns, just visible over the tall grass, among which they were feeding. It was to outflank these, and take them on whichever side they should dart when they discovered us, that directed the plan of our approach. We both stooped low upon the ground, and crept cautiously along so as to be lost entirely to sight among the grass. In this tiresome manner we proceeded for about a quarter of an hour, both diverging nearly in a right line from each other, the rest of our party all this time sitting close to the ground, in the place where we started from. We moved in opposite directions, until we had placed a distance of at least half a mile between us, before we began to bend again towards the sides of the herd, and as I had to get within eighty yards of them, before I could fire with any hope of success, whilst Himyah’s long matchlock would carry pointblank at least two hundred yards, he arrived at a point favourable for a shot, long before I did. My yellow Arab dress was exactly the colour of the deer, and the short barrel of my carbine projecting over my head, as I carried it conveniently upon my shoulder, made no bad representation of a horn, especially when seen in profile, and in fact I intended taking advantage, of all these favourable circumstances, to aid me in my approach on our timid game. Just as my heart was beating thick, with the hopes and expectancy of a successful shot, and I had begun actually to laugh in my sleeve, at the simplicity of the deceived animals, all at once I was astonished by the sharp phit of a ball, as it passed close to my head, followed by a report, that for a moment seemed to paralyze the startled deer, but which, before I could recover from my own surprise, placed a long distance between me and them. The astonishment of Himyah may be supposed when he saw me bound to my feet. His first idea was to seek for shelter among the high grass, either to cover himself from the expected shot in return, or to hide himself altogether from my sight. Seeing me, however, turning from him and look towards the deer, to see if any chance of obtaining a shot still existed, he made off directly to Ohmed Medina, to whom he was relating all the particulars when I came up. With apparent fear, that for the future I should mistrust his intentions towards me, he immediately took my hand between his, and protested in an emphatic manner, that it had been the deception of my appearance, which had so extraordinarily misled him, in this attempt to procure some venison. I readily excused him; but after this adventure it was determined that we should return to camp, as in our limited sporting ground, there was no hope of obtaining that day, such another chance as the one we had just lost; and besides, the sun was getting so exceedingly powerful, that we were all glad to escape from its burning rays.
Omah Suis, in return for the presents I had made his mother, brought me several pounds of fine Owssa dates, which added not a little to the savouriness of my rice puddings, for I had begun to boil my usual mess with milk instead of water, adding not a little to Zaido’s knowledge of cooking, which had wonderfully increased since his association with me, he having learnt to curry a guinea-fowl, and to make sougee-gruel almost as well as myself.
On the occasions of previous journeys, he often remarked, he had eaten nothing the whole way, but wheat boiled in water, and broken dried bread of the jowaree flour. I am afraid he was rendered unhappy for the rest of his life; for after his acquaintance with me, and the diet I had accustomed him to, he never could, I should think, relish again the simple fare of his countrymen. The jowaree bread, for example, was a crumbly dust, of a bright red colour, very sour to the taste. I have eaten many handfuls of it on emergencies, certainly, but it was only because I could get nothing else. The boiled wheat was another of their messes; this, with rich clotted cream, was not so unpalatable, although my puddings of dates, rice, and milk, were allowed to be greatly superior, and a volunteer dinner party, were always ready to finish the contents of a large cooking-pot, which, for the sake of popularity, I used to direct Zaido to prepare every day.
On the second evening of our stay at Ramudalee, after I had turned in, Zaido disturbed me to report the arrival of Lohitu, who had come into camp with three or four attendants, and who very shortly afterwards made his appearance with Ohmed Medina and Ohmed Mahomed, and sat talking till near midnight at the entrance of my hut. A bowl of rice was prepared for them by Zaido, who called me up again to lend them my only spoon, which was used alternately, one after the other taking it, and having conveyed a large quantity of rice into his mouth, gave it to his neighbour in the politest manner possible. After this social repast, rolling themselves in their tobes, they lay down upon mats, which Zaido had placed for that purpose, and continued their conversation until long after I was asleep. I noticed that there was more real respect paid to this chief than to all the others we met with on the road; and as Lohitu had a very great character for generosity of disposition, and was also acknowledged to be the bravest man of his tribe, I think that the attention paid to him by the heads of our Kafilah, and which was very marked, was from sincere feelings of regard, and not from any fear of his power to injure us.
April 17th.—Whilst the camels were being loaded this morning, Lohitu was busily engaged canvassing all my Hy Soumaulee friends, to engage them on an expedition against the Issah Soumaulee, and Garahmee, Moosa, and Adam Burrah, consented, after their return from Shoa, to accompany him. Omah Suis came in high glee, to announce the fact of their adhesion to the cause of the Debenee having been obtained, and which he was at great pains to make me understand, was entirely owing to the overpowering eloquence of his chief. He came, also, to bid me farewell, as he said he should not see me again, until I returned to his country, where he assured Allee, who was, as usual, our interpreter, I might always come with perfect security. When he went away, I put into his hand two dollars, as his proportion of the sum, I had agreed to give my escort to accompany me to Shoa. As he received them with many thanks, nor even attempted to make a claim beyond them, as I expected he would, I could not let him go, without bestowing upon him the remaining three dollars, exacting a promise that he would not say a word about the extraordinary gift to any one, for I could not expect to meet another moderate man among the generally greedy and rapacious Bedouins, and who, had they known it, would never have rested until they had received the same amount. His present of the dates, was worth the three additional dollars I gave him, for although their real value was not, perhaps, the third of the sum, the feeling that prompted him, to make a long day’s journey, to procure them for me, was so gratifying, and so unexpectedly met with in an Adal savage, that I should not have felt satisfied with myself, if I had not returned his kindness in some way or other.
We marched for five hours, sometimes west-south-west, but more frequently south-west, over the extensive undulating plain of Abiheosoph, continuous with the plain of Ramudalee, and of the same geological character, a shingly kind of gravel, formed of small angular fragments of every kind of volcanic rock. As we approached the bank of a stream, covered with mimosa and other trees, I noticed, that this gravelly formation had been denuded, into numerous small hills of uniform height, by the occasionally running waters which fed the stream. Another remarkable feature, was the protruded ridges of a few feet high of black cellular lava, and which extended in directions generally due north and south. A coarse kind of grass, in high and large tufts, covered this plain, and numerous ant-hills raised their tops some feet higher than any of the Kafilah men. It was not unusual for one of these to be made a kind of look-out. Perched upon the summit, some curious Bedouin, squatting upon his heels, would peer above his shield, looking, as I thought, something like a bronze Blemmyes upon a conical pedestal. On the road, we passed the carcase of a recently deceased ox, which had fallen up to his shoulders, through the frail roof of earth, that covered the den of a wild boar, and in that miserable situation, unable to extricate himself, must the animal have hung suspended until dead.
From Abiheosoph we descended, by a gentle declivity, through a grove of the most powerfully-scented mimosa-trees, from whose high branches, depended the large drop-like nests, so characteristic of the African oasis. During our progress, we flushed, from among the roots of long dry grass, several large coveys of the earth-coloured small desert partridge; and vast herds of antelopes, disturbed by our approach, cantered gently away among the thin trunks of the trees, and then halting, turned round to take a long inquisitive gaze at the intruders.
We soon reached the stream of Gobard, which was flowing nearly due west into the Lake Abhibhad. Where we crossed over, it was not more than two feet deep and thirty feet wide, and to ford it I merely took off my boots, and turned my trowsers up above my knees. We then marched another hour, upon the beautiful green-sward of this Adal Eden, walking nearly all the way, under large natural parasols of high mimosa-trees, some distance intervening between the trunks of each, yet their widely-spreading tops, encroaching upon each other on every side, formed one continued grove.
Our halting-place was under the farther bank of the valley of the Gobard, a steep, stony, water-worn ridge, called San-karl, at the distant extremity of which, towards the east, a singular pyramidal monument had been in view nearly the whole day. I was very well content to lie down, by the side of Lohitu and Ohmed Medina, immediately we arrived, I was so tired by my long march of six hours, having walked at least twelve miles, the latter part under a burning sun. In this situation I soon fell asleep, and did not wake until some time after my hut was erected. Ohmed Medina, then retiring himself, shook me by the shoulder, and recommended me not to continue longer under the trees, beneath the shade of which we had been resting ourselves. He also promised to come to my hut, and have a long talk with me about the Hawash, and told me to get out some paper, as he would write a map of the country for my information. As he spoke, he directed my attention to the termination of the valley to the west, and concluded by saying, “Beyond those trees the river ends.”