[26] They found no better word than "fire" to denote my gun.
[27] "Oddai", an old man, corresponds with the Arab Shaykh in etymology. The Somal, however, give the name to men of all ages after marriage.
[28] The "Dihh" is the Arab "Wady",—a fiumara or freshet. "Webbe" (Obbay, Abbai, &c.) is a large river; "Durdur", a running stream.
[29] I saw these Dihhs only in the dry season; at times the torrent must be violent, cutting ten or twelve feet deep into the plain.
[30] The name is derived from Kuranyo, an ant: it means the "place of ants," and is so called from the abundance of a tree which attracts them.
[31] The Arabs call these pillars "Devils," the Somal "Sigo."
[32] The Cape Kafirs have the same prejudice against fish, comparing its flesh, to that of serpents. In some points their squeamishness resembles that of the Somal: he, for instance, who tastes the Rhinoceros Simus is at once dubbed "Om Fogazan" or outcast.
[33] This superstition may have arisen from the peculiarity that the camel's milk, however fresh, if placed upon the fire, breaks like some cows' milk.
[34] "Bori" in Southern Arabia popularly means a water-pipe: here it is used for tobacco.
[35] "Goban" is the low maritime plain lying below the "Bor" or Ghauts, and opposed to Ogu, the table-land above. "Ban" is an elevated grassy prairie, where few trees grow; "Dir," a small jungle, called Haija by the Arabs; and Khain is a forest or thick bush. "Bor," is a mountain, rock, or hill: a stony precipice is called "Jar," and the high clay banks of a ravine "Gebi."