After travelling nearly four hours we arrived at a tree-covered valley called Thermadullah, where we halted for the day. On our march I had an opportunity of observing a family of Bedouins moving with all their property, houses included, towards Killaloo in search of water. Seven camels were laden with mats and the bamboo frames of the native wigwams. The roof canes belonging to these rose, on each side of the animals, with a long tapering curve behind, and high above them into the air. The imagination easily furnished these with some light gossamer structure, and in this manner suggested to itself a new poetical flying-machine, vieing with the Pegasus of mythological fable. Besides the hut, each camel bore a considerable amount of household furniture. Black earthenware pots, contained in a kind of cage protectors made of some flexible shrub; the family store of palm-leaves for the industrious housewife to weave into mats, or to make the native rope; a few handsome-looking baskets hung round with shells suspended from thongs; and a child or two placed amidst the whole, or perched upon the top; sometimes holding in its arms a noisy bleating kid or lamb that was too young to walk with its dam. Some older children, boys and girls, quite naked, assisted their mothers in driving before them the flocks of sheep and goats. No men accompanied this party, but their absence was accounted for, by their being engaged in tending a herd of some thousands of oxen, whose dusty track I observed like a low red cloud some miles in extent, about a league to the west of us.
We had ourselves three cows and several sheep and goats, the returns of some little trading with the people of Herhowlee, who having bought from different persons in the Kafilah a small quantity of tobacco, and a few cubits of blue sood, had paid in kind for their purchases.
When Ohmed Mahomed engaged the Hy Soumaulee escort, he did not tell me that part of the agreement was that they should have a bullock, or its equivalent in sheep or goats, every second day. This I learnt from the men themselves, who to-day came annoying me a great deal for the performance of this part of the stipulation. On applying to Ohmed Mahomed for an explanation, he said that they were justified in claiming it, not from any promise he had made, but because the men of the additional escort, the British Embassy had been necessitated to engage on the road, always received a bullock to regale themselves with every other day. He was exceedingly impertinent in reply to my observation that I had no authority to incur such an additional expense, and which might probably be considered to have been incurred unnecessarily on our arrival in Shoa. He turned upon his heel, saying, loud enough to be heard by the Hy Soumaulee, that I must pay for the bullocks, and was a fool to raise a question about such a trifle, and that where I spent one dollar the Embassy had expended one hundred; concluding, as he retired beneath his shielding of mats, “Go away, go away, give the dollars, if the English want the road the English must pay for it.” It was no use quarrelling with him, to do which I felt exceedingly inclined, and it would have been some satisfaction, to have discharged the shot of one barrel of my carbine, into the bare posteriors of this black rascal, exposed as he was whilst creeping into his retreat. My situation however did not admit of such a display of feeling, and I retired to my hut to consider upon some plan to prevent the extortion, which, under colour of payment for these cattle, I considered at the time was being levied, to make up for the heavy expenditure incurred, by the consequences of the quarrel of yesterday. I never doubted but that his comparison, between my expenses and those of the Embassy, was like his usual statements, founded upon untruth. I was determined, therefore, not to be imposed upon by Ohmed Mahomed, without letting him know that in the end, he would be a much greater loser by his present system of extorting a few dollars from me, by my withholding all commendation for care and attention upon our arrival in Shoa.
Accordingly, towards evening, when the men came again demanding the bullock, I accompanied them to the hut of Ohmed Mahomed, and asked him, as if I had consented to their demand, what was the price of the animal. As I expected, he asked a most unreasonable sum, no less than nine dollars, two being the fair market price. I told him in reply, very quietly, that he was no friend to the English, and that I should consider him, therefore, no longer my Ras ul Kafilah, but that for the future Ebin Izaak alone should transact all business with me; I also gave him to understand that I should represent to the proper quarter the treatment I had received, which would occasion a considerable diminution in the amount of boxeish, or present, he would receive in Shoa. On hearing this, he got immediately into a dreadful rage, stormed away, and pushed by me out of the hut, as if bent “on purpose dire;” but hearing, as I also jumped to my feet, the repeated warning click of both locks of my carbine, he replaced his seized spear against the heap of salt-bags, loudly complaining in his own language to Ohmed Medina and a crowd of the Kafilah people, who, hearing words running very high, had come, all armed, to hear what could be the matter. They kept at a very respectful distance from me, some of them calling out they were my friends, for two or three of the boldest had at first threatened me both by shouting and shaking their spears; but, having taken on the first alarm a good position among the camels, I managed to enact a sufficiently bold bearing to deter them from a nearer approach, although my hopes just at that moment were most recreant indeed.
After a little consultation, seeing I would not leave my camel-battery to come to them, Ohmed Medina and Ebin Izaak left the crowd, and walking some distance on one side, squatted down as they do in a calahm, beckoning me to go to them. As these two were men, of whose friendly intentions I could have no doubt, I joined them immediately, and we sat talking and explaining matters for nearly an hour, when it was arranged, that peace between Ohmed Mahomed and myself should be made in the usual manner, and that we must both be good friends. For this purpose Ebin Izaak brought Ohmed Mahomed into the little circle, the Fahtah, or opening chapter of the Koran, was recited, and shaking hands, we each repeated “Y’Allah abbi!” (God bless you!) and thus ended very satisfactorily, an affair, which at one time had rather a serious aspect.
We now entered upon the subject of providing food for the Hy Soumaulee. I complained of the exorbitant price asked for the bullocks, and proposed that I should give three dollars each, for those that would be required. Ohmed Medina said, it was enough; so that business was also settled. A laughing proposal was then made, to tie Ohmed Mahomed, during the night, but I replied, that I had nothing to fear from him after the Fahtah had been read, and with this compliment to the sacred character of their oath, I got up, and retired to my hut.
In a very short time, my escort had slaughtered and flayed the bullock; and, in expectation of a hearty meal, were quite happy. One half of them lay in a line upon the ground, at the back of my hut, whilst the remainder were busily employed, boiling the meat, at numerous little wood fires, which occupied shallow holes, scraped with their fingers, in the soil. Three stones, around each of these, supported large earthenware pots; and the bubbling contents, and the sharp crackling fuel told, that things were going on as satisfactorily as possible. Some of the cooks, sitting on their heels, were amusing themselves, during the process of the boiling, by picking the bones, from which the meat in the pots had been cut. Their long knives, held close on one side the face, as, with both hands, the bone was held most lovingly to the mouth, glistened frequently in the blaze of the fires, when, with sudden snatches, they detached with their teeth, the raw remnants of flesh that still remained.
Somewhat amused with the scene, I took a stroll among the cooking fires, and the recumbent escort; as I came near one of them, he, without raising his head from the wooden pillow on which it rested, reached his arm out, and rolling a stone nearer to him, patted it with his hand, and calling out, “Ahkeem,” very politely invited me to take a seat by his side. Here our conversation stopt; for, besides “How do you,” I did not understand a word scarcely of their language. However, my presence was the signal for a song; Carmel Ibrahim, my present entertainer, and chief man of the Hy Soumaulee escort, commencing. An improvisatored chant, of which, of course, I was the subject, was sung in alternate stanzas by a noisy chorus, who followed Carmel’s dictation, something like a country congregation, when, from the scarcity of books, the clerk, to accommodate them, gives out two lines of the hymn at a time. I awaited, very patiently, the termination of the song, which only ended when supper was reported ready; music that moment lost its charm, and the savage, good-humoured choristers bounded to their feet, and thronged around the respective fires. The meat was taken out of the seething pots, and placed in the dirty tobe of one of the party upon the ground, and every one then helped himself. The supply of provisions being plentiful, they had no fear that their appetites would not be satisfied, so the best feeling prevailed amongst the party, each taking what he thought sufficient for himself, and the greatest unanimity, as to eating as much as ever they possibly could, characterized the entertainment.
Zaido, in an agony of mind at not finding me in the hut, now came shouting in the dark for me, and on relieving his anxious fears about my safety by reporting myself present, he quickly placed before me a bowl heaped up with pieces of meat, placed upon a quantity of boiled wheat, soaking in ghee. I made haste to do justice to his care; and in a short time afterwards, he and the two Allees were finishing what remained.
Before I close the account of this day, I must observe, that the burn in the palm of my hand troubled me very little indeed; the thick compact skin having only been superficially scorched, and the slight inflammation it excited, having quickly subsided, I felt but little inconvenience from the wound.