We proceeded about six miles farther towards the south-west, and arrived at a place called Annee, an open gravelly spot, with high mimosa-trees standing at some distance from each other. Just beyond us was a pool of dirty water, not made any cleaner by a number of camels getting into and rolling themselves over in it.
Soon after we were settled for the day, and I was putting off as long as possible, the unpleasant necessity of drinking a large draught of the yellow solution contained in my little kid-skin bag, some Assa-hemerah women came in with loads of “nature’s” particularly delicious “beverage,” milk. “Oh! what lovely damsels! only a handful of tobacco for all that!” and how they patted their fingers against their thin lips in mute astonishment, as I transferred their burdens into a skin of my own, which, by the accidents and incidents of my journey, had become not much fairer than their own. Two strap-buttons (nearly all those from the top of my trousers had gone long previously) purchased me also half a leopard’s skin that had been brought into camp for sale, and a head-cover of blue sood was given for a fine goat, which I intended to take on with me to Shoa.
None of the male inhabitants of the neighbouring extensive kraal ventured to come into camp, but a large circle of forty or fifty were sitting in council not far from us; and between them and the stores, the Tajourah people and the Hy Soumaulee also held a calahm in one large body. From the country being more open here than at Murroo, I could see more of our consort Kafilahs, that, in groups at some distance from each other, were dotted all over the plain.
The day passed very quietly, and some ostriches coming in sight, it was even proposed that I should go out with a party to shoot one. Ohmed Medina and the greater part of my escort, were as anxious as possible for me to do so, but the more cautious of the Tajourah people, with Ohmed Mahomed at the head, objected, from the chances of our coming into collision with the Assa-hemerah: a very general feeling among the Hy Soumaulee and the Owssa Muditu Kafilahs with us being, to take this opportunity of retaliating some recent outrage upon a Kafilah of their friends that attempted to proceed to Shoa, but had been obliged to return by this very tribe. Much to the gratification of Carmel Ibrahim, I gave him the half leopard’s skin I had purchased here, as a return for his attention to me on several little hunting excursions, for next to Ohmed Medina, he possessed more of my confidence than any of the rest of the Kafilah.
In the cool of the evening, when the Assa-hemerah council had broken up, and our men were preparing for rest, I sat some time upon the boxes forming my hut, and beneath a beautifully bright moon, indulged in reveries that grew out of my strange situation. These musings, which I always recollect as the most unalloyed of all the enjoyments of my desert life, were a sufficient equivalent of themselves, for all the hardships and exposure consequent upon such wanderings. New ideas, fresh feelings, and novel truths pressed themselves forward with scarcely an exertion of thought, surrounded as I was by fields of unexplored nature, new to me in her vegetation, in her animal kingdom, and in the character of her principal phenomena. Of these I had certainly read, but I now looked upon reality, and saw that abundance of facts in previous descriptions had been overlooked, and still remain to requite a patient pursuer of truth, more competent to observe and reflect, than a mere beginner, like myself, in the study of natural history.
I certainly am affected by the still quiet of a moonlight night, and very readily believe, that if it can produce the moody calms and melancholy enjoyment it does on my particular disposition, that on some others it may have more exaggerated effects, and “moon-stricken lunacy” may not, perhaps, be improperly attributed to such an influence. However, I am not now sitting on the top of some piled up boxes, pistols around my waist, and a dagger ready to my hand, nor am I surrounded by the mummy-like forms of sleeping savages wrapt closely up in their tobes, whilst champing ruminating camels, with large goggle eyes, and goose looks, appear almost as contemplative as myself. I am not now the half-Bedouin, half-moss-trooper of the time I spent in Adal, and incidents will be more interesting to my reader, than any account of the dreamy castles that reared their airy turrets to amuse me in my solitude.
To aid reminiscences of other days, not from any want of thought, I began to whistle a favourite air, but being overheard by Moosa, he sat upon his mat, and tried, by calling out, “Ahkeem,” two or three times, to intimate that it was not exactly proper; but as I still continued, Zaido also awakened, and supposing I did not understand Moosa, put his hand up from where he lay by the side of the hut, and shook me by the foot, saying, “Ahkeem, that is very bad; all the Jinn in this country will seize the camels, if you whistle in that manner.” As he was evidently in earnest, and as I was getting tired, I slipped down from off the boxes, crept into my hut, and was very soon as quiet as they could wish me.
May 19th.—I was awakened some time before sunrise, by the usual loud summons of Ohmed Mahomed, for the Kafilah “to up and saddle,” but which, from the pitch and prolonged tone, I knew was intended to mean just the contrary. The very last thing, in fact, that Allee told me the night before was, that we should not start to-day, and wanted me to bet to the contrary half a dozen small gilt buttons, against a milk basket hung round with shells I had taken a fancy to. The truth was, that the country so abounded with vegetation, not having been exposed for some months to any grazing exhaustion by passing Kafilahs, that one and all composing our army decided upon remaining here to-day, whether the tribe we were among would like it or not; especially as the next three marches would be long and forced ones across the country of the Hittoo Gallas, a people much more numerous and fierce than the Assa-hemerah. Ohmed Mahomed’s signal cry was raised to deceive the people of Annee, up to the very last moment, with the idea that we were going to leave this morning, to prevent them collecting their friends, which they would have gone about very early, had they had any idea we should have remained a day longer with them.
During the day some unlocked for visitors came into camp, being three old women belonging to the Hittoo Galla. They accompanied a Kafilah of seven or eight donkeys, laden with tobacco and well made hempen ropes, which they offered for sale among our people. They received in exchange some white cotton cloth, and a little brass wire. They were very old and excessively ugly. These women did not wear the blue covering for the head common to the grown up Dankalli and Soumaulee females. The hair, however, was dressed in the same manner, hanging around the sides and back of the head like a small curtain, from the numerous little plaited locks being connected by bands of interwoven cotton thread. I need not mention that grease had been used with no sparing hand at their toilet. They wore the same kind of soft leather petticoat, as the Adal ladies; and their feet were protected by the simple sandal formed of one piece of dried ox-skin, secured to the sole of the foot by a loop into which one toe is inserted, and by a tie or thong of leather passed in front and around the ancles to the side lappels. Whilst bartering their goods they occupied themselves also in twisting a bundle of hemp, fastened to the front of their girdle, into an excellent rope, which, as it was made, was secured behind them upon their loins.
From the hemp and tobacco brought in this manner to our camp, I concluded that agriculture was carried on to a considerable extent by the Gallas occupying the fertile plains on each side of the southern portion of the river Hawash. This struck me at first as being a characteristic distinction between them and the Dankalli, whom I had been accustomed to associate only with the care of flocks and herds; but when I remembered the highly cultivated condition of Owssa, proved by the great quantities of dates and jowharee grain brought into Tajourah, either for home use or for exportation, I felt satisfied, that the physical character of the surface of different parts of the country of Adal had produced those differences in the mode of life observed in the herdsman Dankalli, in the agricultural Muditu and Galla, or in the seafaring Soumaulee, all of whom belong to one family of man.