For several years the Assa-hemerah had thus excluded all but their own Kafilahs from entering Shoa by the direct road, attacking and plundering all other Kafilahs that attempted it. I make the observation “direct road,” for we learn from the journal of Isenberg and Krapf, published by the Church Missionary Society, that the Tajourah people had some communication still with the kingdom of Shoa. They were, however, obliged to move with their camels along the sea-shore to the head of Goobat ul Khhrab, then, during the night, pass rapidly over the five or six miles which intervene between the sea in this situation and the salt lake. Loading their camels with the salt, they then returned to Tajourah. From this town they proceeded to Zeilah in bogalows, or native boats, and by a circuitous route through the country of the Issah Soumaulee, at length reached Shoa.
It was not likely such a palmy state of things, for the Assa-hemerah people, would be allowed to flourish long, without exciting some envy and jealousy, especially among the inhabitants of Tajourah and Owssa, who had not forgotten the great advantages that accrued to them when an uninterrupted road allowed them to carry on a direct trade with the populous countries to the west of the Hawash. Accordingly, through the machinations of some of the wise men of Tajourah, the braves of all the Dankalli tribes in the interior, consented to combine their forces under one leader, and Lohitu, the Debenee chief, was unanimously chosen to fill that post. Owssa is inhabited by a Muditu tribe, but on this occasion they assisted the Tajourah people, because of their dependence upon that port, to enable them to communicate with foreign markets, as the Owssa Muditu carry on a considerable trade with Gondah and Central Abyssinia. The other leagued tribes were the Issah Soumaulee, the Wahama, the Hy Soumaulee, the Debenee, and a mixed multitude of minor subdivisions that could scarcely be considered separate tribes. Tajourah and Ambabboo also sent their warriors; but Ohmed Medina laughed when he said they only sent ten men between them. Altogether the combined forces amounted to one thousand men, who were gathered together on San-karl to the west of the valley of Gobard, and which I recollected to have been pointed out to me by Lohitu himself as the rendezvous of his tribe on such occasions.
From San-karl they proceeded to Kuditee, and slept there the night preceding the engagement. The next morning they entered the country of the Assa-hemerah, two thousand of whom had collected upon the flank of the mountain Hyhilloo, to give battle to the invaders. Lohitu led his men directly to their front, and after a few personal combats, in which the leader and my little Tajourah acquaintance, Ibrahim Shatan, particularly distinguished themselves, the battle became general, and in less than one hour after they had first seen the Muditu, the latter fled, leaving more than one half their number slain.
Of the allies, I was informed, the Issah Soumaulee lost the greatest number, one hundred of them having been killed. The Debenee lost sixty, the Wahama eighty, the Hy Soumaulee, a very small tribe, thirty, and the Owssa Muditu fifty. The Tajourah people lost but one man; whilst of all the others who fought under Lohitu, not as particular tribes, but as amateurs, about twenty were killed, making a total of three hundred and forty-one, and considering the manner in which battles are fought among these people, I can easily conceive how so few, comparatively, of the victorious party were slain.
One interesting ethnological fact may be gleaned from this relation; that is, the presence of the Issah Soumaulee on this occasion, which is another evidence to prove, the intimate relationship of the Dankalli with that people.
Conversing upon the subject of this fight, we kept marching on for nearly five hours, but as we were in the rear of the Kafilah, and obliged to restrict ourselves to the slow pace of the camels, I do not think we accomplished more than ten miles during that time. We halted at a place called Mettah, or Maida, and the appearance of the country suggested, the appropriateness of the name, which I was given to understand, signified the same as the English word meadow.
Our march had been all the morning along a narrow plain, confined by low level ridges of black lava, about a mile distant from each other. Through the centre, but in a very serpentine course, a shallow channel had been cut through the fine alluvial soil, by an occasional stream, which flows towards the north and east. When we passed along its banks we only found a few shallow stagnant pools in its bed.
On leaving the line of march with Ohmed Medina to examine the stream more closely, we found, in its dry bed, very soundly sleeping, a man wrapt up in his tobe, his shield being secured by it over his stomach and bowels. Instinct, or something like it, had taught me the very same method of partially securing myself from assassination, whenever I expected foul play, or have had reason to suspect those, whom I well knew, would have been glad of an opportunity to take away my life, without danger to themselves from my firearms. Putting my hand to the heavy Adal knife I wore in my girdle, I turned to Ohmed Medina, to ask him if I should bury it in the heart of the unconscious sleeper. He taking my proposal to be serious, instantly interposed with the common Arabic negative, “La! la!” but which, in the usual amusing manner of an Adal interpretation, he prolonged to five or six repetitions. This awoke the man, who certainly looked as if he thought he were about to be put to death, and scowled most desperately, as in a moment he put himself behind his shield, and raised his spear for the attack. Ohmed Medina calmed his apprehensions by a word or two, but he also took care to drop behind his shield, as he spoke from the overhanging bank. The man, however, recovered confidence, let fall his weapon to the ground, and stood upright, and in a very short time we were all three walking back to the Hy Soumaulee, some of whom came to meet us, to inquire from whence our new friend had sprung. It seemed he belonged to the Wahama tribe, but from some cause or other was obliged to be very select in his lodgings, probably from having had a recent quarrel, which would have insured his death, had he been discovered by his enemy asleep.
At Mettah, the narrow plain we had travelled along spread out into an open level country, which appeared bounded by an extensive sea, so perfectly delusive was the appearance of the distant mirage, in which small eminences, here and there appearing, looked like islets standing amidst the waters. Large sand-pillars, their bases hidden in the mirage, rising like spirits from the vasty deep, until their tall summits were lost in the blue sky, moved steadily across, acted upon by some stronger current of air, and added one more circumstance to strengthen the delusion, by reminding the travelled spectator, of the water-spouts he has witnessed at sea. After all my experience I persisted in believing that there must be water before me, especially as it lay in the situation of a lake, Murroo, I had heard Lieut. Barker speak of, but Ohmed Medina very quietly referred me, to the stream and its course in an opposite direction, to corroborate his statement of its being “a great lie.”
My mule breaking loose, in consequence of not having been properly secured by Allee, strayed to a considerable distance towards the opposite side of the plain, and a large party went out to protect Zaido, and both Allees, who were sent to bring her in, for it appeared our movements were being watched by a party of men, squatting on the extremity of the ridge where it projected into the plain. So nearly approaching to the colour of these rocks, were the dark skins of the natives, that it was sometime before I could make them out, or the cause of all the bustle that seemed to have taken possession of the previously quiet camp. I thought at first it was some leopard or hyena, preparations were being made to hunt, that had occasioned the stir, and came out of my hut to see the anticipated sport. When I did discover the men I was surprised that such a number could have approached so close, and not have been discovered before. They must have marched parallel to us, covered by the ridge on our left, and the circumstance of its terminating opposite to where we had halted, prevented them continuing their ambush for any purposes of surprise, and our increased numbers made an open attack by them, out of the question. After the mule was driven in, they retired, but upon a report spreading that a large kraal of the Assa-hemerah lay over the other side of the ridge, my Hy Soumaulee friends, and most of the young men of the Kafilah, determined to proceed thither for the purpose, as they said on my protesting against it, to purchase milk. As, however, I knew that robbery was intended, and that murder would probably ensue, I offered them a bullock to remain, which they very reluctantly accepted. On my expostulating with Ohmed Medina, he admitted it was not right, and said very candidly, “What are my countrymen but wild beasts?”