CHAPTER XI.
Staying at Ramudalee.—Himyah and his matchlock.—Chase of a hyæna.—Visitors from the Debenee tribe.—Guinea-fowl shooting.—Ahkeem shooting.—Arrival of Lohitu, Chief of the Debenee.—April 17th, leave Ramudalee for the valley of Gobard, general direction S.W., time occupied on the journey six hours.
April 15th.—There was some rain a few hours before sunrise, and however grateful it might be to thirsty nature in this scorched-up country, I felt very uncomfortable myself, for it came soaking through my carpet-roof, and I awoke in a state of wretchedness that no physical misfortune, except actual bodily injury, could have occasioned; but lying in a heavy rain upon the bare earth, or, what is worse, upon wet palm-leaves, (for my mats consisted of nothing else,) was but miserable accommodation for an invalid traveller.
The sun rising, however, put a stop to the descent of the rain, and by nine o’clock the camp was all comfortably dry again, so rapidly, in this country, is the water either absorbed by the arid soil or evaporated by the sun.
Ohmed Medina, and a sporting character whohad been a close attendant upon me during our journey, but of whom I have not had occasion to speak before, now came to invite me to take a walk around the neighbourhood of our camp, for in the valley below, and, in fact, on all sides, we could see considerable numbers of deer, which promised no little sport. The individual I now introduce to the reader was named Himyah, and was a tall, ugly, middle-aged man, the very person whom I particularized in Tajourah as being the possessor of the only matchlock, previous to Mr. Cruttenden presenting one to the Sultaun’s brother, Izaak. This morning I found that he had brought his clumsy piece with him; it had escaped my observation before, from its looking so very little like a gun, as it was carefully wrapt up in a lot of rags, and lashed behind a heap of salt on one of Himyah’s camels. Its stock consisted of one long piece of wood, of equal dimensions through its whole extent, from the muzzle to the back of the pan of the lock, where a slight bend terminated in a semi-lunar butt-end, something in the form of half a Dutch cheese, its round surface being adapted to the hollow of the shoulder. The barrel was nearly six feet long, and the metal loops for receiving the ramrod being broken off, this necessary appendage was obliged to be carried in the barrel, secured within the muzzle by a tightly-fitting piece of wood.
I was very glad to have the opportunity of seeing the country, which had become remarkablychanged in its character, since crossing the bed of the stream we travelled down yesterday, and which was a natural division, very well marked, between the wild volcanic desert to the east and south, and the extensive undulating plain of gravelly soil to the west, which was thickly covered with high tufts of a strong, coarse grass, and afforded plenty of food for the camels. It was, in fact, the great inducement for our halt at this place, although attributed by the politic Ohmed Mahomed, to a desire on his part not to offend Lohitu, by passing any further through his dominions without a conference.
Mimosa-trees also abounded here, and their bright green delicate foliage, when growing closely together, made some better watered parts of the country look as if covered with extensive meadows. Herds of some hundreds of a species of antelope, called “wydiddoo” could be observed in one direction, feeding on the edges of these woods, whilst on the other side, the less but more elegant “symbilla” was raising itself almost into the trees, to reach the tufts of curled seed-pods, that form its favourite food. These pods were also being gathered in considerable quantities by the camel-men, who placed them carefully in their body-cloths, or tobes, and intended them as abonne bouche, for any camel deemed not altogether in such condition, as its owner could wish. They were always a dose at bed-time, beinggiven the last thing, after the camels had been driven home, and had lain down for the night.
Ohmed Medina, Zaido, and Allee, with their spears and shields, accompanied Himyah and myself with our guns, and we proceeded down the face of the declivity, from our camp to the edge of the winding watercourse in front. Here, on the stiff clay of the not yet quite dried up pools which resulted from this morning’s rain, we found the large footprints of a hyæna, that had been prowling round the camp, and we immediately set about following the traces, in the hopes of meeting a nobler object of attack, than the fearful and provokingly shy antelope. These foot-marks took us in the direction of the lava-plain of Hy, and we soon found, that the extreme difficulty of recovering several times the broken trail, and the little chance we, could have, in the country he seemed to have retired to, of coming upon his retreat before he discovered our approach, offered no sufficient inducement for us to continue the chase.
Ohmed Medina had just come to a stand, and was making the proposal for us to return, when Zaido and Allee, simultaneously pointed in the direction of one of the numerous kairns, that mark the graves of the Dankalli. There we saw the object of our pursuit on the look-out, and apparently watching our movements, his grizzly head and high shoulders, protruding beyond the cover afforded by a large kairn, at the distance ofat least four times the range of my short carbine. To circumvent him by some means or other, however, was our determination, so Ohmed Medina directed us all to squat down on our heels, as in the usual manner for a calahm, I having intimated to him, the impossibility of my killing the beast so far off, by shaking my head, and pointing to the length of my gun, and then to the great distance intervening. By good fortune, the hyæna seemed as determined as ourselves, to see the affair properly over, and kept his eyes fixed upon us all the time, as if we had been sitting in the direction he wished to go, and was waiting for us to retire.
After a few words amongst ourselves, Himyah got out of the little circle, and first moving off towards the camp, until well out of sight of the hyæna, he made a sudden turn to the right, and stealing among the detached portions of rock, which abounded along the edges of the plain, he, in a short time, made his appearance again far in the rear of the animal, who was still sitting, like ourselves, on its haunches, and not in the least aware of the dangerous proximity of the ugly Dankalli, with his still more ugly matchlock. All at once we saw Himyah drop behind a large stone, that quite screened him from our observation, during the long time he was taking his aim, but which, it seems, afforded him a most advantageous rest for the long barrel of his piece. After some minutes of suspense, a little puff of smoke from thepan of his large lock, told that at length the death of our victim was determined. We were, however, disappointed, for no report followed, and again we had to wait for the long operation, of pricking and priming the touch-hole afresh, and we certainly began to think that before Himyah could get ready, the hyæna would be off. But he was a doomed beast, and his senses had left him; so at last bang went the matchlock, knocking Himyah into sight one way by the recoil, and on the other, the hyæna over and over into the open ground, where Zaido and Allee, racing to be first, soon terminated his struggles with their spears. Himyah was delighted with the success of his shot. Ohmed Medina thought the old matchlock was a “tihebe bandook” (a capital gun), whilst Zaido and Allee were beckoning a crowd of Bedouins and Kafilah men, who had heard the report, and were now hastening in a long line, to witness the grand feat in the sporting annals of their country, the honour of which belonged entirely to them, through Himyah’s creditable firing, and who was saluted accordingly by several as an “Engreez got-tam,” (English soldier.)[3]
3.Unfortunately, the very blasphemous ejaculation, so frequently used by our soldiers in their conversations, has become their cognomen in the East, and is the only word which the Dankalli employ to designate them. I well recollect that when Ohmed Mahomed was telling me about the murder at Gunguntur, on my asking him how many were killed, he replied “Two got-tam,” (the two soldiers) “and one radgpoot,” this being the Portuguese cook.
3.Unfortunately, the very blasphemous ejaculation, so frequently used by our soldiers in their conversations, has become their cognomen in the East, and is the only word which the Dankalli employ to designate them. I well recollect that when Ohmed Mahomed was telling me about the murder at Gunguntur, on my asking him how many were killed, he replied “Two got-tam,” (the two soldiers) “and one radgpoot,” this being the Portuguese cook.
3.Unfortunately, the very blasphemous ejaculation, so frequently used by our soldiers in their conversations, has become their cognomen in the East, and is the only word which the Dankalli employ to designate them. I well recollect that when Ohmed Mahomed was telling me about the murder at Gunguntur, on my asking him how many were killed, he replied “Two got-tam,” (the two soldiers) “and one radgpoot,” this being the Portuguese cook.
After Himyah had been duly congratulated and praised on all sides, I began to examine a severe wound on his face, which had been cut by the butt end of his matchlock in the recoil; and it was well that the cheek-bone, was in his case unusually high and prominent, or he would certainly have seriously damaged his eye, or perhaps knocked it out altogether. A piece of my frock, which I tore off for the occasion, and a little shaking of my powder-flask over the wound, set all to rights again, and having presented him with nearly twelve charges of powder, as a reward for his dexterity, I made him both comfortable and happy, under the circumstances, and we proceeded afresh in search of game.
We descended into the bed of the stream which we kept along but a very short time before we came upon a numerous covey of fine guinea-fowl, walking before us at a rapid rate. I should suppose there were nearly fifty or sixty of them, and whether it was that numbers gave confidence, or that they were unsuspicious, from never having been molested before, after having got out of our direct course, they seemed to think, that was quite as much as was expected or wanted, and began pecking away on the banks on either side again, with as much careless ease, as if they had been so many barn-door fowls. I soon drew the charge of one of my barrels, and substituted some shot for the bullet with which it was loaded; for having anticipated meeting with only large animals, I had preparedaccordingly. Leaving the group of my attendant friends, I crept to the trees which fringed the borders of the watercourse, and surprised myself exceedingly by finding, as I cautiously looked up, that I was not more than ten or fifteen yards from several dozen of the guinea-fowl, who only walked on a little farther when they saw me.
It was a sad case of misplaced confidence; for upon the strength of their great tameness, I took the opportunity of adding a few of the fine small pebbles, which abounded where I stood, to the charge of shot, and on firing this mixture among them, eight or nine of these fine birds fell fluttering together. As one or two, which were but slightly wounded, succeeded in getting away, I sprang forward to pick up the rest, a task in which I was assisted by Zaido, Allee, and Himyah, who, with their long knives unsheathed, seemed as if rushing to an attack upon the Muditu, or Issah Soumaulee. I soon found that all this hurry, was to secure the performance of the rites of religion over the dying birds; each being taken up, the head turned towards Mecca, and the throat cut, whilst the usual short prayer of Ul’ Allah, or Allah Achbah, was hurriedly pronounced.
One, and only one, was voted too late to receive the last consolations of religion, although I am sure, that more than one half of the others were quite dead, before this attention could be paid to them. To this one, over which no rite was performed, I volunteered to give a Christian burialwith rice, &c., in my cooking-pot. As I thus got as much as I wanted in return for my shot, whilst the other birds went to my Islam attendants, the division was hailed with universal approbation, and was followed by a general consent to return to camp, bearing our game in triumph slung upon a spear, and carried on the shoulders of two men. This was the best course that could be adopted, for what with the report of the guns, and the noisy talking crowd of Bedouins who had now collected, there was not much likelihood that we should have another chance of adding to our bag, as everything in the shape of an antelope had taken alarm and trotted away to a distance, farther than Ohmed Medina deemed it prudent for us to follow.
In the afternoon several men of the Debenee tribe came into camp. They were very friendly, and accordingly very troublesome, pestering me for the remainder of the day, for small presents of needles, paper, and buttons. Tobacco was a continual demand of theirs, and the only method I could take to get rid of them was by referring them to Ohmed Mahomed, who undertook, at my request, to divide two large skin bags of this luxury amongst them. Women also brought milk in large quantities, which they offered for the most trifling things. A square bit of paper, scarcely four inches in extent, would purchase at least a gallon of the richest and sweetest milk, and Allee, Zaido, and myself so satisfied ourselves with it, as to be enabled to presentthe guinea-fowls, intended for our dinner in the evening, to others less fortunate than ourselves. As my particular one had been boiled in the same cooking pot with the rest, and the bit of stick that had been placed upon it as a mark, being lost, I thought, of course, that all must go to the dogs; but silence upon the subject was the order of the day, nothing being said about it by us, and no questions asked by the others, so the birds, both the Christian and Islam, were gladly received and speedily devoured, by our hungry and unscrupulous friends.
The next morning I proposed hunting again, and the same party as yesterday started, but as we could get no opportunity of approaching the antelopes near enough for a shot, Himyah, of whose dexterity as a marksman I had had honourable evidence the day before, tried this morning his skill upon me, but fortunately, having no rest for his matchlock, the ball went some few inches over my head. The circumstances that occasioned this were most singular and accidental. Before us was a herd of about twenty Wydiddoo antelopes; their white faces, yellow sides, and black straight horns, just visible over the tall grass, among which they were feeding. It was to outflank these, and take them on whichever side they should dart when they discovered us, that directed the plan of our approach. We both stooped low upon the ground, and crept cautiously along so as to be lost entirely to sight among the grass. In this tiresome mannerwe proceeded for about a quarter of an hour, both diverging nearly in a right line from each other, the rest of our party all this time sitting close to the ground, in the place where we started from. We moved in opposite directions, until we had placed a distance of at least half a mile between us, before we began to bend again towards the sides of the herd, and as I had to get within eighty yards of them, before I could fire with any hope of success, whilst Himyah’s long matchlock would carry pointblank at least two hundred yards, he arrived at a point favourable for a shot, long before I did. My yellow Arab dress was exactly the colour of the deer, and the short barrel of my carbine projecting over my head, as I carried it conveniently upon my shoulder, made no bad representation of a horn, especially when seen in profile, and in fact I intended taking advantage, of all these favourable circumstances, to aid me in my approach on our timid game. Just as my heart was beating thick, with the hopes and expectancy of a successful shot, and I had begun actually to laugh in my sleeve, at the simplicity of the deceived animals, all at once I was astonished by the sharpphitof a ball, as it passed close to my head, followed by a report, that for a moment seemed to paralyze the startled deer, but which, before I could recover from my own surprise, placed a long distance between me and them. The astonishment of Himyah may be supposed when he saw me bound to my feet. His first ideawas to seek for shelter among the high grass, either to cover himself from the expected shot in return, or to hide himself altogether from my sight. Seeing me, however, turning from him and look towards the deer, to see if any chance of obtaining a shot still existed, he made off directly to Ohmed Medina, to whom he was relating all the particulars when I came up. With apparent fear, that for the future I should mistrust his intentions towards me, he immediately took my hand between his, and protested in an emphatic manner, that it had been the deception of my appearance, which had so extraordinarily misled him, in this attempt to procure some venison. I readily excused him; but after this adventure it was determined that we should return to camp, as in our limited sporting ground, there was no hope of obtaining that day, such another chance as the one we had just lost; and besides, the sun was getting so exceedingly powerful, that we were all glad to escape from its burning rays.
Omah Suis, in return for the presents I had made his mother, brought me several pounds of fine Owssa dates, which added not a little to the savouriness of my rice puddings, for I had begun to boil my usual mess with milk instead of water, adding not a little to Zaido’s knowledge of cooking, which had wonderfully increased since his association with me, he having learnt to curry a guinea-fowl, and to make sougee-gruel almost as well as myself.
On the occasions of previous journeys, he oftenremarked, he had eaten nothing the whole way, but wheat boiled in water, and broken dried bread of the jowaree flour. I am afraid he was rendered unhappy for the rest of his life; for after his acquaintance with me, and the diet I had accustomed him to, he never could, I should think, relish again the simple fare of his countrymen. The jowaree bread, for example, was a crumbly dust, of a bright red colour, very sour to the taste. I have eaten many handfuls of it on emergencies, certainly, but it was only because I could get nothing else. The boiled wheat was another of their messes; this, with rich clotted cream, was not so unpalatable, although my puddings of dates, rice, and milk, were allowed to be greatly superior, and a volunteer dinner party, were always ready to finish the contents of a large cooking-pot, which, for the sake of popularity, I used to direct Zaido to prepare every day.
On the second evening of our stay at Ramudalee, after I had turned in, Zaido disturbed me to report the arrival of Lohitu, who had come into camp with three or four attendants, and who very shortly afterwards made his appearance with Ohmed Medina and Ohmed Mahomed, and sat talking till near midnight at the entrance of my hut. A bowl of rice was prepared for them by Zaido, who called me up again to lend them my only spoon, which was used alternately, one after the other taking it, and having conveyed a large quantity of rice into his mouth,gave it to his neighbour in the politest manner possible. After this social repast, rolling themselves in their tobes, they lay down upon mats, which Zaido had placed for that purpose, and continued their conversation until long after I was asleep. I noticed that there was more real respect paid to this chief than to all the others we met with on the road; and as Lohitu had a very great character for generosity of disposition, and was also acknowledged to be the bravest man of his tribe, I think that the attention paid to him by the heads of our Kafilah, and which was very marked, was from sincere feelings of regard, and not from any fear of his power to injure us.
April 17th.—Whilst the camels were being loaded this morning, Lohitu was busily engaged canvassing all my Hy Soumaulee friends, to engage them on an expedition against the Issah Soumaulee, and Garahmee, Moosa, and Adam Burrah, consented, after their return from Shoa, to accompany him. Omah Suis came in high glee, to announce the fact of their adhesion to the cause of the Debenee having been obtained, and which he was at great pains to make me understand, was entirely owing to the overpowering eloquence of his chief. He came, also, to bid me farewell, as he said he should not see me again, until I returned to his country, where he assured Allee, who was, as usual, our interpreter, I might always come with perfect security. When he went away, I put into his hand two dollars, ashis proportion of the sum, I had agreed to give my escort to accompany me to Shoa. As he received them with many thanks, nor even attempted to make a claim beyond them, as I expected he would, I could not let him go, without bestowing upon him the remaining three dollars, exacting a promise that he would not say a word about the extraordinary gift to any one, for I could not expect to meet another moderate man among the generally greedy and rapacious Bedouins, and who, had they known it, would never have rested until they had received the same amount. His present of the dates, was worth the three additional dollars I gave him, for although their real value was not, perhaps, the third of the sum, the feeling that prompted him, to make a long day’s journey, to procure them for me, was so gratifying, and so unexpectedly met with in an Adal savage, that I should not have felt satisfied with myself, if I had not returned his kindness in some way or other.
We marched for five hours, sometimes west-south-west, but more frequently south-west, over the extensive undulating plain of Abiheosoph, continuous with the plain of Ramudalee, and of the same geological character, a shingly kind of gravel, formed of small angular fragments of every kind of volcanic rock. As we approached the bank of a stream, covered with mimosa and other trees, I noticed, that this gravelly formation had been denuded, into numerous small hills of uniformheight, by the occasionally running waters which fed the stream. Another remarkable feature, was the protruded ridges of a few feet high of black cellular lava, and which extended in directions generally due north and south. A coarse kind of grass, in high and large tufts, covered this plain, and numerous ant-hills raised their tops some feet higher than any of the Kafilah men. It was not unusual for one of these to be made a kind of look-out. Perched upon the summit, some curious Bedouin, squatting upon his heels, would peer above his shield, looking, as I thought, something like a bronze Blemmyes upon a conical pedestal. On the road, we passed the carcase of a recently deceased ox, which had fallen up to his shoulders, through the frail roof of earth, that covered the den of a wild boar, and in that miserable situation, unable to extricate himself, must the animal have hung suspended until dead.
From Abiheosoph we descended, by a gentle declivity, through a grove of the most powerfully-scented mimosa-trees, from whose high branches, depended the large drop-like nests, so characteristic of the African oasis. During our progress, we flushed, from among the roots of long dry grass, several large coveys of the earth-coloured small desert partridge; and vast herds of antelopes, disturbed by our approach, cantered gently away among the thin trunks of the trees, and then halting, turned round to take a long inquisitive gaze at the intruders.
We soon reached the stream of Gobard, which was flowing nearly due west into the Lake Abhibhad. Where we crossed over, it was not more than two feet deep and thirty feet wide, and to ford it I merely took off my boots, and turned my trowsers up above my knees. We then marched another hour, upon the beautiful green-sward of this Adal Eden, walking nearly all the way, under large natural parasols of high mimosa-trees, some distance intervening between the trunks of each, yet their widely-spreading tops, encroaching upon each other on every side, formed one continued grove.
Our halting-place was under the farther bank of the valley of the Gobard, a steep, stony, water-worn ridge, called San-karl, at the distant extremity of which, towards the east, a singular pyramidal monument had been in view nearly the whole day. I was very well content to lie down, by the side of Lohitu and Ohmed Medina, immediately we arrived, I was so tired by my long march of six hours, having walked at least twelve miles, the latter part under a burning sun. In this situation I soon fell asleep, and did not wake until some time after my hut was erected. Ohmed Medina, then retiring himself, shook me by the shoulder, and recommended me not to continue longer under the trees, beneath the shade of which we had been resting ourselves. He also promised to come to my hut, and have along talk with me about the Hawash, and told me to get out some paper, as he would write a map of the country for my information. As he spoke, he directed my attention to the termination of the valley to the west, and concluded by saying, “Beyond those trees the river ends.”