3. Dair, the beginning of the cold season, opens the sea to shipping. The rain which then falls is called Dairti or Hais: it comes with a west- south-west wind from the hills of Harar.
4. Jilal is the dry season from December to April. The country then becomes Abar (in Arabic Jahr,) a place of famine: the Nomads migrate to the low plains, where pasture is procurable. Some reckon as a fifth season Kalil, or the heats between Jilal and the monsoon.
[17] According to Bruce this tree flourishes everywhere on the low hot plains between, the Red Sea and the Abyssinian hills. The Gallas revere it and plant it over sacerdotal graves. It suggests the Fetiss trees of Western Africa, and the Hiero-Sykaminon of Egypt.
[18] There are two species of this bird, both called by the Somal, "Daudaulay" from their tapping.
[19] The limbs are perfumed with the "Hedi," and "Karanli," products of the Ugadayn or southern country.
[20] This great oath suggests the litholatry of the Arabs, derived from the Abyssinian and Galla Sabaeans; it is regarded by the Eesa and Gudabirsi Bedouins as even more binding than the popular religious adjurations. When a suspected person denies his guilt, the judge places a stone before him, saying "Tabo!" (feel!); the liar will seldom dare to touch it. Sometimes a Somali will take up a stone and say "Dagaha," (it is a stone,) he may then generally be believed.
[21] Kariyah is the Arabic word.
[22] In the northern country the water-proofing matter is, according to travellers, the juice of the Quolquol, a species of Euphorbium.
[23] The flies are always most troublesome where cows have been; kraals of goats and camels are comparatively free from the nuisance.
[24] Some years ago a French lady landed at Berberah: her white face, according to the End of Time, made every man hate his wife and every wife hate herself. I know not who the fair dame was: her charms and black silk dress, however, have made a lasting impression upon the Somali heart; from the coast to Harar she is still remembered with rapture.