After a deal of trouble with Ebin Izaak, and Ohmed Mahomed, each asserting on my charging them with the deed, that he did not know of the breaking open of the boxes, I asked them, if they would go with me the following morning to the kraal, where they were kept, to examine the state they were in, but neither seeming inclined to indulge me, I walked back to my hut. I was soon after followed, however, by the father of Mahomed Allee, who asking me to accompany him, I buckled on my belt again, replaced my pistols, took up my carabine, and went off with him, without once looking back to see if any volunteers from the Kafilah would follow me. I could hear several of the principal people of Tajourah addressing me in rather an equivocal manner, as I passed them, muttering “Tihebe,” “Tihebe,” “Good,” “Good,” in a tone, anything but expressive of being pleased at my proceedings.
It was a longer walk than I expected, continuing for two hours at a very sharp pace over the plain, until we came in sight of several kraals, at distances of about half a mile from each other. Towards one of these we directed our steps, and as soon as we were observed, some half-dozen men, and a crowd of women, and naked children, issued out of the low wigwams, that were clustered upon a little eminence. On one side of this portable village was a large circle of loose stones, in which sheep, goats, and cattle were kept; and near to it another, formed of boughs of the long white-thorned mimosa, which was considered a sufficient defence for the security of the camels.
The evening’s milking was about to commence; the flocks arriving just at the moment we did; and their bleating made a terrible din. On our approach, the men came up to Abu Mahomed, and after each had saluted him with the open hand, sliding it over his, as he extended it for that purpose, they very civilly came and proffered the same kind of welcome to me. I was rather taken by surprise, but removing my carabine to the other hand, I presented my right, with all the gravity and decorum proper on the occasion. This reception was so flattering, that I began to conclude my appearance, as a civilized being, must be a good deal worn off, and that my life in the desert had given me somewhat of the savage air of one of these roving family of man. They invited us into one of the huts, and a large bundle of split palm-leaves, ready for the women to plait into mats, was placed for me to sit down upon. Scarcely had I taken the offered seat, than a woman brought in a large basket of milk, which was fairly divided between Abu Mahomed and myself; and after it was finished, we proceeded to view the stores.
I found them carefully enough heaped up between two of the huts, above which they stood some feet in height, and were covered with three or four covers of tarpaulin, the remains of a large tent, which being worn out and useless, had been also left with the boxes. They consisted principally, of the trunks of Dr. Roth and Mr. Scott, some boxes of ammunition, as also others containing a very small seed bead, a favourite with the Christians of Shoa, but of no value to the Dankalli people, two corn-mills, and two boxes of silks, and valuables. All these, with the exception of the latter, had been opened. But as Abu Mahomed had told me not to notice this circumstance, I did not ask for any explanation, being satisfied with what he had informed me upon the road, that seven days ago, he had seen them untouched, and that it must have been the instigation of some of my Kafilah, that had induced the man to allow them to be forced open. The injury done to some of the boxes, where a deal of violence had been used to open them, the man did attempt to account for, by stating, that they had been broken during the journey, by the knocking about consequent upon the numerous loadings, and unloadings of the camels, whilst the holes in the ammunition and other boxes, he attributed to the curiosity of the children of the kraal. One box containing beads was so much damaged, that I was obliged to have the parcels placed in skin bags. How all the things that had been left here so long, failed to excite the cupidity of the people, is beyond my comprehension. Paper, printed ginghams, and actually, some thirteen or fourteen dollars, in a box belonging to Mr. Scott, were left untouched. The beads, whatever may be said of their not being the kind, most in demand among the Dankalli, must still have been thought of some value. In this short review of the facts, it must be understood, that the inhabitants of Tajourah surpass in unprincipled cunning, the Bedouins of the interior, as they are on the other hand inferior to them in courage; so that the disgraceful conduct of Ohmed Mahomed, and Ebin Izaak, in the clandestine search they made, for dollars supposed to be contained in some of the packages, must not influence any opinion, that may be formed respecting the character of the inhabitants of the interior.
When Mahomed Allee took the last Kafilah of stores for the mission to Shoa, four thousand dollars and some musket cartridges were forwarded in similar packages; by some means the Tajourah people became acquainted with the fact, and when they heard of shot boxes being among those left at Errur, unable to be carried up, they jumped to the conclusion at once, that these boxes must also contain dollars. This led to their endeavour to prevent me seeing the boxes until they had perfectly satisfied themselves of their contents; and finding nothing but the presence of what, in their possession, would convict them of the dishonest action, they had left the articles untouched, and then, making a virtue of their disappointment, commented loudly upon the integrity and good faith of the Dankalli people.
Care having been evidently taken of the property to protect it from the weather, and the man and his friends behaving so civilly to me on the occasion of my visit, I promised him, on my return to camp, a half dollar’s worth of blue sood for his wife, and a coloured cotton handkerchief for a son who was to be circumcised in a day or two. On such occasions, as in Arabia, all the personal riches and household furniture of the family are paraded, and a great entertainment provided.
So much for the boxes I found in this place, and which occasioned me considerable anxiety and trouble during the four days we stayed at Hiero Murroo. What I regretted most was the offence I had given Ohmed Medina, who, in common with the rest of the Tajourah people, resented my holding any intercourse with the father of Mahomed Allee. None of them spoke to me for two days, but I remained in my hut in perfect contentment; pulling down a mat over the entrance, and making Zaido place a camel saddle as a kind of chevaux de frise in front, I slept very comfortably during the heat of the day. At night I took the precaution of building up the entrance of my hut with stones, whilst, over the region of my stomach I placed a shield, and curled one of my arms around my neck, so that any attempt upon my life would have been almost sure to have awakened me.
Though I was spared, an unfortunate slave of my friend Himyah was murdered by one of my Hy Soumaulee escort, for some offence committed by the unfortunate man during the preceding day. Although in the scuffle that immediately ensued he had been severely wounded in the face, this did not satisfy his opponent, who, unobserved, stole upon him during the night, and struck his dagger into the chest above the breast bone, killing him at one blow. The murderer next morning paraded with a large black feather in his hair, and was the coolest of the whole party as they sat alone, during the deliberations which ensued upon this deed of blood. Five bullocks was the fine imposed, which was paid by his friends collectively, who applied to me, to authorize Ohmed Mahomed to advance the money for that purpose. At first I insisted upon the Ras ul Kafilah discharging this man, but Ohmed Medina corroborating the statement that this was impossible in our situation, I had no other course but to resolve not to have any communication with the murderer. Even this I was only able to do for a few days, as the fellow would still come and sit down at the entrance of my hut, and converse with as much ease, as if conscious only of having done a most meritorious act. My last resort, therefore, to express my own abhorrence of his dastardly conduct, was to address him always as Cain, and by that name he very soon became known to the whole Kafilah, but of course, no one had any idea of the allusion contained in the appellation.
Our stay in Hiero Murroo being so long, and the place abounding with shrubby clumps of the moomen or tooth-brush-tree, nearly all the Kafilah people formed for themselves, with their knives, rude bowers, by cutting out some of the underwood, and scattering it over the top to increase the shade. In this manner sometimes three or four tenants would occupy one bush. The moomen, or woomen, as I have heard it also called, grew at the convenient distance of not more than five yards from each other, and towards evening I often took a walk, along the naturally formed lanes, to pick up some trait of character, by observing the inmates and their occupation in these human nests. If they were not sleeping, which was most frequently the case, they would perhaps be mending a tobe, or making their ox-skin sandals. Sometimes two idle rascals, lying upon their stomachs, would be passing away the time by a game called gubahtah, played with thirty-two pieces of dried camel’s dung, which were to be duly apportioned, according to certain laws, into sixteen holes, and depends, somewhat like backgammon, upon the choice of position and chance of number.
Many of the bushes were festooned inside and out, with strings of meat drying in the sun, upon which the circling falcon, which in great numbers always accompany a Kafilah, would make frequent stoops, scarcely scared, by the yell and often-hurled stones of the watching slave-boy.