Grain of any kind, dates, or vegetables, are unknown as the products of the country of Adal south of Owssa, although many parts are well calculated for the cultivation of all kinds of useful tropical plants. Cotton, indigo, and sugar, I am sure would thrive most luxuriantly along the broad valley of the river of Killalu, called Waha-ambillee, and which extends from the west of Lake Abhibhad to the extensive and widely-spreading plains of Errur to the south, to the base of the Oburah and Goror range.
In my notes written on this spot, I find the following observation recorded. That portion of the entrails, with which the Dankalli, in common with the other savage inhabitants of this part of Africa, are said to adorn themselves, is the omentum, or peritoneal covering of the bowels, and which corresponds with what, in our butchers’ shops, is called the leaf, and from which lard is rendered. This omentum abounds with fat, easily melted by the sun. It is taken and twisted by the hands into a kind of rope, which is tied around the neck, the ends hanging low behind the back. It is not, therefore, for ornament that entrails are worn by these people, but for the relief and comfort the skin receives from unctuous substances, when liable to exposure under a burning sun, and which has dictated the employment, of this natural and constant supply of grease, in the manner I have described.
One afternoon I was again treated with an extempore song, a method of expressing their feelings which appears to afford great pleasure to the Dankalli. I was sitting on the ground at the entrance of my hut, thinking upon past scenes and pleasures, at the same time humming a favourite old tune. This attracted the attention of Moosa, who, with the large wooden packing-needle they use for sewing the palm-leaf salt-bags, was mending my mule’s head-gear, two straps of which had got broken. Ejecting, with averted head, a great quantity of tobacco juice from his mouth far upon the sand, he began a low muttering song, which was soon joined in by Carmel Ibrahim, who lay in a neighbouring bush, Carmel, as usual, introducing my name, and exciting considerable mirth among the listeners who gathered around, but their merriment was as far as possible from being of a disrespectful character.
Every evening ball-playing amused the greater part of the Kafilah people, and the loud shouts on the Wahama side told of their being also engaged in the same noisy busy game. It was rather too boisterous for me to join, though I was often invited by our party, but I showed off by balancing some heavy sheets of pewter, Ohmed Medina was taking up to the Shoan market. All these I could lift with the greatest ease, and project them from one shoulder a considerable distance. None of my Dankalli companions could do this, and although I was very weak from my recent illness, they all acknowledged my superior strength. This was admitted on more than one occasion; but I recollect once particularly, at Arabderah, being requested to heave away, a large stone half buried in the soil. Garahmee, on going to prayers, there being no water, was necessitated to go through the performance in sand, and the cavity in which the stone was embedded was to represent the bathing vessel. Moosa, Carmel Ibrahim, Ohmed Medina, all tried to remove the stone without the least effect, but I rolled it out with comparative ease. From this circumstance, which was corroborated by other opportunities of observation, I do not consider bodily strength to be a characteristic of the Dankalli, although for agility and endurance under fatigue, I think they are unequalled by any people, not excepting even the North American Indians. That they would incur voluntarily this exercise of their physical and moral endurance is another thing, and from what little I know of them I do not think they would.
After remaining at Hiero Murroo five days, I was not sorry to find that we were to start on the morning of the sixth. Although I had determined not to appear anxious to get the journey over, still I could not help bribing Ebin Izaak with five dollars, to induce Ohmed Mahomed not to delay our march, after the boxes of Mahomed Allee’s Kafilah came into camp, which was on the morning of the fifth day of our stay, and accordingly, before evening, I received the intimation of our move the next morning. During the last day we were joined by several smaller Kafilahs, of from eight to twenty camels, so that we could now muster with the Wahama Kafilah, between three and four hundred camels, and nearly two hundred fighting men.
CHAPTER XXV.
Journey from Hiero Murroo to Mettah.—General direction, W.S.W., time marching four hours and a-half.—Conversation upon different roads through Adal to Shoa.—Commercial jealousy between the Muditu and the Dankalli.—Battle of Hihillo.—Surprise sleeping friend.—Frighten my servant Allee.—Halt near Assa-hemerah kraal.
May 12th.—We were up and away long before sunrise. Ohmed Medina and I were accompanied by a crowd of the escort and Kafilah men, all discoursing upon some great engagement that had taken place some few years before, when Lohitu led the combined Dankalli tribes against the Assa-hemerah Muditu, who occupied the whole country on the east of the Hawash, from Owssa to the ford of Mulkukuyu, where our road crossed the Hawash. The scene of this sanguinary conflict was about two hours’ march to the north-west of where we were, at the base of a high conical mountain which now came into sight, having previously been shut from the view by the small range of Abhidah. Almost all my Hy Soumaulee escort had been present in the battle, and I received long accounts, during the march, through the interpreting medium of Ohmed Medina, who himself was not there, but who took as much interest in the relations as I did.
It appears that for some years previous to 1839, the road to Shoa had been closed to the merchants of Tajourah and of Ambabboo, who previously had carried on an extensive trade with that country, taking up salt from Lake Assal, and receiving in return Abyssinian slaves, who were sold to great advantage in the Mahomedan ports on the shores of the Red Sea. The Assa-hemerah live on the north side of the more western portion of the road through Adal, and although speaking the same language, deny their nationality with the Dankalli tribes. This was their plea for extorting exorbitant duties for many years previous to 1839, but having at length fully established an intercourse with Shoa through their own country, by another passage of the river Hawash, north of Mulkukuyu, they endeavoured to monopolize the trade in salt and slaves. To effect this, they seized the whole country to the north of the road to Bahr Assal, and allowed no Tajourah Kafilah either to load with salt at the lake, or to proceed for slaves to Shoa.