Negotiations were then set on foot with the Rheer Hamaturwa, and several of their Akils came at my bidding, but were as implacable about obliging a stranger as any of their neighbours. The whole distance was not three days' travel; still they said I should not see their country, and acknowledged themselves a lawless band, who would take everything from me if I ventured there: adding, if the Warsingali and Dulbahantas, who were stronger than themselves, would only withdraw from me one day, they would come down at once, and demolish my whole camp. They then demanded cloths for the trouble I had given them, but, not receiving any, retired in huge disgust.
18th.—In final despair I faced about, and marched north-easterly, by a new route, to reach Bunder Gori again, to ship for Aden, as there only could I be certain of finding a vessel to convey me over the Gulf. After six miles' march across the head of the valley, we arrived at Mirhiddo Kraal, on elevated ground, and found a large party assembled there. Some of them were the Rheer Hamaturwa, with whom I tried again for permission to cross their hills, but this time by the gap at the head of the valley in front of Bunder Jedid. This they were ready to permit, and give security of passage to my people, if I gave them all my remaining cloths; but they thought I should not find a vessel there, which settled the question. I had no time to lose, and, moreover, should save my cloths by continuing on the line I was travelling. For though I should have to cross the hills where they were occupied by the Habr Gerhajis, in the new way my track would pass so near to the Warsingali frontier, that that tribe would not have strength enough to demand anything from me, and passport fees are only given in such places to the extent to which they can be enforced.
The other people I met here were some Dulbahantas arming for the fight. They said they were 4000 strong in cavalry, and were slaughtering sheep wholesale for provision on the road. Each man carried a junk of flesh, a skin of water, and a little hay, and was then ready for a long campaign, for they were not soft like the English (their general boast), who must have their daily food; they were hardy enough to work without eating ten days in succession, if the emergency required it. Here a second camel was on the point of dying, when his flesh was saved from becoming carrion by a knife being passed across his throat.
21st.—The Abban slipped away on the 19th, when I was out specimen-hunting, and would not come again till to-day, and then even returned to give his wife a last salute, permitting me to advance to a watercourse called Hanfallal, whilst he would join me on the following day. This day we accomplished ten miles, and made a kraal about four miles north of our old line of march.
22d.—As the Abban did not keep his promise, and none of us knew the road, I now tried to prevail on his mother Awado, who was tending her flocks close by, to be my guide, which she readily consented to do, as she was anxious herself to go to Bunder Gori. The water found here was in a circular cleft of limestone, sixty feet below the surface, which was so small, only one person at a time could descend to it; and the supply was so limited, I was obliged to keep my men down there all night, to be the first for drawing in the morning. Gazelles were very abundant, and in the evening we were visited by a very singular-looking canine animal, which unfortunately I could not get a shot at. It was a little less in size than the Crocuta hyena, but inclined rather more, in its general shape, to a wolf than a hyena. The body was a pure black, like the black Tibet wolf, but the tail was tipped with white. I am not aware that this animal has ever been described.
23d.—At the usual starting-hour the Abban arrived, with two ponies belonging to his brother-in-law, Husayn Ali, but which he tried to pass off as his own, being ever very anxious to make me believe he was a large stock proprietor, to magnify his importance. But, unfortunately for him, the interpreter, who was as treacherous a man as any of the breed, although he often confounded me by his innate deceit, also peached at times upon his brother Sumunter. The Abban, on seeing his mother equipped and ready on her donkey to go with me, scolded her heartily for presuming to undertake the journey without his leave, and sent her home faster than she came. We now commenced the march, and travelled five miles diagonally across some low spurs of hills, and encamped in the evening in a broad, deep, dry nullah, at a place called Dalmallé. We brought water with us, and fortunate it was so, for none could be found anywhere near the camp.
24th.—We started early in the morning, ascending the hill-range by a steep winding footpath up one of its ridges, which, in respect to its barrenness and soil, resembled the descent I had from Yafir. After completing eleven miles' march, the caravan crested the hill opposite Ras[21] Galwéni, travelled a short way on the flat of the summit, and encamped in the evening amongst some thick jungle on its north or seaward side, at a kraal called Gobamiré.
Immediately on arriving, as we commenced to unload the camels, a number of men who were occupying that district—the Urus Sagé section of the Habr Gerhajis tribe—seized the camels by their heads, and demanded their customary fees, at the same time boisterously gesticulating that they would help themselves if their request was not complied with. Farhan enjoyed the row in the boisterous characteristic manner of a Seedi—began dancing frantically the negro war-dance, cocking his gun, and pointing it at everybody by turns; whilst Sumunter and the other Warsingali began thumping them with their clubs, and swearing a fearful vengeance would be wrought upon them by their tribe, who were living within an hour or two's call, should they not desist. The fact was, my men knew their power here, and, guided only by animal passions, enjoyed showing it. The poor discomfited Urus Sagé now slunk off like defeated dogs, or schoolboys returning from a fight, just wishing to know if they were only to be considered in the light of women, who could not maintain their own right, and, snarling and snapping, threatened they would return again in stronger force before the morning.
We then unloaded, and lay-to for the night. Immediately on reaching the top of this range, a most interesting and novel sight was presented to our view. We stepped in one instant from constant sunshine into constant clouds, and saw what accounted for the dense verdure of the north, as well as the extreme barrenness of the south side of the hills. For two months we had not seen the vestige of a cloud, or felt a drop of rain, and now we were at once launched into the middle of the "Dairti" or north-east monsoon, which had been pouring for some time previously against the north face of the mountain, and was arrested there by it. It reminded me at once of that marked phenomenon with which all travellers in the Himalaya Mountains, who spend their "hot-weather" season at Chini, on the banks of the Sutlege river, to escape rain, must be acquainted, when the clouds of the great Indian monsoon envelop all the mountain-range for months together on the weather or south-west side, and hang suspended on the top of a high hill in sight of that place, but never pass over, looking as if the mountain was too high to be surmounted by them, when trying to reach the dry plateaux of Tibet. The clouds were rolling in thick successive volumes at our feet, and obscured the view below us.
25th.—We were detained until noon in consequence of the Abban's ponies, which had gone astray, and until then could not be found. In the meanwhile the Urus Sagé came again, and tried to prevent us loading, on the same plea as yesterday, but without effect; but when we were starting, a compromise was effected on condition they would escort us down the hill and guide the way. The road was steep and very slippery, so that the camels could hardly get along, and this was further increased by the thick strong green jungle-bushes, as well as rocks and other difficulties incidental to mountain travelling with such large and ungainly animals as laden camels. At the fourth mile we found a large roomy cave under a rock, and put up for the night. Sheep had been kept here, and the place was so full of fleas that the ground was literally browned with them. I never saw such an astonishing quantity congregated in one place; but we soon disposed of them by burning certain boughs, which the Somali justly said was a specific remedy against them.