We marched back on the morning of the 24th to Garabad, and in the evening to Denleh, where we fell in with a trading caravan of the Malingúr. On the 25th we made two marches to Segag, by a picturesque river-bed called Sullul, with running water, and a number of wells overshadowed by large camel-thorn trees (gudá). The banks were of red earth, which had been much undermined by the river, leaving a perpendicular scarp of about fifty feet.
Until Captain Baudi, with Signor Candeo, came this way on their journey to Imé, three years before my visit, no European had reached either Durhi, Segag, or Imé.[40] My men said that Baudi was attacked by Rer Amáden robbers at these wells, and I saw the site of his camp, but had no means of verifying the report.
The Rer Amáden are the Ogádén tribe next to the south of the Malingúr, and they have pastures nearly as far as the Webbe Shabéleh river; and on the farther side of the Webbe the Gálla country begins in the west, and that of the Aulihán Somális in the east. My coast Somális had already begun intriguing to try and get me back to Berbera, as they fear the Gálla border; and my expedition nearly came to a premature conclusion through want of information and guides.
The country for many days was quite uninhabited. I wanted to send a message to the Rer Amáden, whom I had never seen, to let them know, as I have always done, if possible, when entering a new tribe after a stretch of uninhabited country, that my intentions were peaceful, but the whole of the waterless bush ahead being reported empty for forty miles, my messengers were afraid to go forward, and we had no information where the Amáden were, or whether they might attack us or not. There was also a chance of the messengers being killed by marauding Gállas.
My leave was drawing to a close, and my idea, long formed, of going to Imé and the Webbe Shabéleh seemed fated to disappointment. The Rer Amáden were reported by the Malingúr to be a very warlike and powerful tribe, and they had never yet seen an Englishman; so with my small party of twenty camelmen, further weakened by our having to detach scouts and messengers, it seemed rather risky to make a plunge into the country ahead without information.
After several ineffectual attempts to find out the Rer Amáden, or tracks of their grazing camels, I pushed on through uninhabited country along a good path leading southwards, and on 27th April we halted at Enleh. Here I determined to make one final attempt to communicate with the Amáden, and if unsuccessful, to return by the north-eastern route to the coast, now distant three hundred miles, going through the Malingúr, Sheikh Ash, Rer Ali, Rer Harún, Habr Gerhajis, and Habr Awal tribes.
We halted at Enleh from 27th April to 2nd May, waiting for the scouts to return to camp. I had chosen the two Ogádén guides, one of whom was a widad named Yunis, and had given them large water-bottles and dates to carry in their hands, and had told them to look out for rain-water, and not to return for four days, unless they found the Amáden karias.
The whole of the country which we had passed over, after leaving the open Marar Prairie at Jig-Jiga, had been low and hilly, covered with thorn forest of no great height, and since leaving the Jerer Valley it had been much cut up by ravines and watercourses. The most important of these were the Tug Fáfan, which we crossed near Náno, and the Sullul and Daghatto streams.
At the seasons when it is occupied by the tribes, all this country gives excellent pasture, and supports horses, camels, cattle, donkeys, sheep, and goats; but there were no permanent settlements on this route between Hargeisa and the Webbe, a distance of about three hundred miles.
In parts of the Jerer Valley, notably at Dagahbúr, Haljíd, Harakleh, and Jig-Jiga, cultivation could be extensively carried on; in fact Dagahbúr was, not long ago, a thriving settlement, but it had to be abandoned for the usual reason, tribal feuds and the absence of any strong government. The Rer Amáden do not generally send caravans to trade at Berbera, but deal indirectly through the Sheikh Ash and Rer Ali.