CHAPTER XII.
Conversation with Ohmed Medina respecting the course of the river Hawash.—Description of that river.—Its termination in Lake Abhibhad.—The various watersheds of the basin of the Hawash.—Comparison of present route with that of previous travellers.
WhenOhmed Medina did come, he prepared to stop the whole day, directed Zaido to boil some coffee, placed his spear upright against the boxes of my hut, and wheeled his shield very gently up towards the farther end of my retreat, asking me at the same time to suspend it from the roof by the little wooden hook that was attached to a leathern thong for this purpose. He then unbuckled his sword-belt, and after handing it to me also to take care of, he stooped on to his hands and knees, and crept well under the shade. I produced my pencil and paper, and we soon entered into a long conversation upon the Hawash, in which we were joined by a young man belonging to Owssa, named Ohmedu, who had come into my hut out of curiosity, but learning what we were about, volunteered some information respecting his native place. The map projected between these two was an excellent one,an imbodied transcript of the clear idea, which both had of the geography of the country we were in. No confusion or contradiction, but a straightforward delineation, that carried conviction of its truth by its plain and consistent simplicity.
A curved line, like a long ʃ, was first drawn in a general direction of north and south, the curves at each extremity inclining respectively to the east and west, the former where it partially encircled Owssa, the latter where, as Ohmed Medina said, in our comparative manner of talking, “it surrounded Shoa, like a swordbelt round the waist.” The descending and ascending portions of the Owssa curve were joined by a straight line, marking the situation of an artificial canal which connected these two portions of the river, and including within their limits an isolated tract of country of some extent, which represented Owssa, and which, for the first time, I now understood to be a large district rather than a town, as I had always previously considered it to be, in common with other travellers. Ohmed Medina now drew seven successive parallel lines, all flowing from the west, which I was given to understand represented the principal tributary streams, as far as the northern limits of the kingdom of Shoa, for beyond, or towards the south, he professed to know nothing, except the general fact of the river encircling Shoa in that direction.
To these seven streams, which Ohmed Medina drew upon his sketch map, Ohmedu added a smallone, flowing directly from the north, in a line with the descending portion of the river after it has formed the northern boundary of Owssa. This was called Gussisson, and on the east, near its entrance into the Hawash, a small cross was placed by my informant, to represent the house of his uncle, the Sultaun, as he styled him, of Owssa.
The next stream to this flowed from the west, and was called the Mellee. It was succeeded by another still more to the south, called Tahlahlac; to this followed the Douhee, then the Burkanah, the fifth in order was the Jahrah, the sixth the Ahsu, and the seventh the Howdee. All these streams flow from the west, a particularity pointed out to me by Ohmed Medina, and which was a fact exactly opposite, to that which I had expected to find, led by the representations of Mr. M‘Queen, in his “Survey of Africa,” published in 1840.
Ohmed Medina and Ohmedu had crossed every stream they named, either in their journeys from Owssa to Gondah, or from the former place to Shoa. One road leads to both these places as far as the Hawash, but from the ford situated between where the Douhee and the Burkanah streams enter that river, Kafilahs diverge, some going towards the north, to Gondah, and others towards the south, to Shoa. This has occasioned the general name, Abisha, usually applied in the same way in which we say, Abyssinia, to be modified by the Dankalli, into Abisha Gondah, andAbisha Shoa, for the purpose of more definitely particularizing whichever portion of the table-land around the sources of the river Abi or Bruce’s-Nile, they may allude to in conversation.
During the whole conversation so far, our actual situation at the time, with respect to the termination of the Hawash, had never been alluded to. Ohmed Medina, supposing that I had understood him fully when he said, “Over those trees the river ends,” had not thought it necessary to repeat the remark, but finished his map by making three lakes, one larger and two smaller ones, into which the line representing the river Hawash, was led as to its termination. As I wrote the names down from their dictation, I was waiting to receive that of the largest lake, Abhibhad, when a careless movement of the hand over the shoulder, made by Ohmedu as his companion pronounced the word, intimated that the lake was in our immediate neighbourhood, and on making the inquiry, I found that it was not one hour’s journey from where we then were, and that during our morning’s march, before we descended into the valley of the Gobard, we had been even much nearer to it. This was a discovery; especially as I had not heard of any account having been sent either to England or to India by previous travellers, whilst I knew that at Aden considerable desire was felt to receive some information respecting the large city, as it was then supposed to be, of Owssa, and the termination of the river Hawash.My desire to visit the very shores of the lake, the waters of which were concealed by the foliage of a dense forest of mimosa-trees, was, therefore, increased by this opportunity of being able to add a new fact to our geographical knowledge.
I had but eighty dollars remaining, of the one hundred allowed me by the Government, for the expenses of the Kafilah on the road, and as I had not performed one-third of the journey, I could with prudence, offer only the sum of twenty-five dollars, to Lohitu and Ohmed Medina for an escort, to traverse the short distance intervening between the camp and the lake. The latter certainly exerted himself to procure volunteers among the Debenee who visited us, but after their chief had refused, not one would undertake even the office of guide; for I insisted that I would go alone, if a guard could not be procured. Many of the Tajourah people now came around me, intreating me not to attempt such a thing, as my death would be the certain consequence, and that ever after “their faces would be blackened with the commander in Aden,” meaning Captain Haines, so that in the end I was obliged to submit, for I saw that I could not help myself. It appears the tract of rich alluvial soil in this situation, being well watered by its contiguity to the lakes, is covered with vegetation during the whole year, and is always held by the strongest tribe; for sometimes, from the necessityoccasioned by long-continued droughts, the tribes occupying less favoured spots are compelled, to resort here, where they fight most desperately, for the required relief of food and water for their cattle. I could, therefore, well understand, that the ever-verdant shores of these lakes, must be one continued scene of contention. On the occasion of our visit to their neighbourhood, I found that the Galayla Muditu tribe were in possession, and at war, of course, with every other. This rendered the appearance of a few individuals amongst them particularly unsafe, as they killed all such intruders when discovered; and of a number quite impossible, as their approach would occasion an immediate alarm throughout the whole country. Under these circumstances it was deemed our wisest course to let the sleeping wild beast alone, and not rouse an excitement that might end in the destruction of the Kafilah.
Every object of science, however, was effected, except the testing and analysis of the waters of the lakes, for the depression which the largest occupies in the level table-land surrounding, was plainly visible through the wide gorge cut by the entrance of the river of Gobard into it. Our halting-place was actually upon a portion of the bottom, of what I considered at some periods of the year, to form part of the then flooded lake, the soil consisting of a light-brown friable marl, in which were embedded vast numbers of a spiralunivalve, exactly identical with some I had taken, from a thin stratum of a cretaceous earth, lying beneath the lava in the narrow strip of land, between the sea at Goobat ul Khhrab and the Salt Lake. I have the authority of Dr. Roth, the naturalist attached to the British Political Mission, that living specimens of this fresh water shell have been found in this neighbourhood; an interesting fact, as it proves that the fossils I collected between Goobat ul Khhrab and the Salt Lake, and those at Gobard, are very recent, and that the river Hawash, at some former period of the earth’s history, entered the sea in the Bay of Tajourah.
Besides the Gobard and Hawash, no other river enters the Abhibhad Lake, although the extensive plain to the south, as far as the hills of Hurrah that form the water-shed of the river Whabbee, is drained by a stream, the waters of which flow close to the western side of this lake, through Killaloo to the Hawash. This is only during the rains, when this part of Adal is, I should think, one extensive morass, in which a chain of shallow lakes, communicating at times with each other, in a direction bearing to the north and east, forms a river called Waha-ambillee, which Ohmed Medina said terminated at Killaloo, but Ohmedu contended that it proceeded into the Hawash, just before that river entered its final lake, Abhibhad.
The course of the river of Gobard from the east,marks the descent of the water-shed in that direction, to the lower level of the country around these lakes. This small river, in length, not more I should think than thirty miles, flows directly from the east, and its wide bed constitutes a convenient road to the port of Zeila. In the time of Abyssinian supremacy over all this part of Africa, the communication with Gondah and the sea-coast, was through the populous and fertile oasis of Owssa, along the valley of the Gobard to Zeilah; and tradition still preserves, the memory of the once lucrative commerce, that was carried on with the then rich provinces through which the road lay. I was frequently told by Ohmed Medina, that gold and silks were the burdens of camels in years gone by, instead of the salt and blue calico, which is the only merchandise, excepting slaves, of Kafilahs at the present day.
The Hawash, in its course into Lake Abhibhad, bounds the country of Owssa on the west, the north, and the east, and the circuit is completed, by the ascending and descending portions of the river, being connected on the south, by an artificial canal called Garandurah; thus completely surrounding Owssa, and contributing considerably to the proverbial fertility of this Ethiopic oasis. The existence of this canal, and several subordinate ones for the purposes of irrigation, also accounts for the representation made in early Portuguese maps, thatthe Hawash does not reach the sea, but is diverted from its course, by numerous canals made by the natives.
Having obtained some idea of the geographical bearings of the watersheds of the Hawash, by learning the directions of the various streams which flow towards the centre of its peculiar system, the lakes in sight of the encampment, I endeavoured to decide our relative position with regard to the halting-places of previous travellers, as it was only by subsequent comparison with their observations, more particularly with those of Lieut. Barker and Dr. Kirk, who surveyed the road taken by the British Political Mission on its way to Shoa the preceding year, that I could determine the exact situation of the lake, for from circumstances, I was unable to make any meridional observations myself. From what I could then learn, the enterprising and zealous agents of the Church Missionary Society, the Rev. Messrs. Isenberg and Krapf; the French traveller M. Rochet de Hericourt, Dr. Beke, and the British Mission, had all taken a route, one short day’s journey farther to the east than mine. On the return from Shoa, of Mr. Isenberg, in 1840, that gentleman may have been brought to my halting-place in the Gobard; for in his notes I believe is contained the observation, that on that occasion he took a road much nearer to the lakes than on his previous journey. The reverse of this occurred to me when I returnedfrom Shoa last year, and again visited this neighbourhood; for the British Mission, whom I then accompanied, retraced its former route, and we halted on the very same spot they had done two years before. This afforded me the opportunity of fixing my comparisons of situation upon positive data, but I shall not anticipate the result, as I return to the subject again in relating the particulars of my second visit to this interesting locality.
A long morning having been occupied in writing, discussing, and viewing, everything possible relative to the situation of Lake Abhibhad, towards evening I strolled about in the immediate precincts of the camp, attended by Lohitu and Ohmed Medina, the former having good sense enough to think a crumbling bank of the embedded shells would interest me, led me to a spot where I found in great numbers, the spiral univalve I have before alluded to. On our return to the camp, I shot one of those small antelopes to which I believe the Abyssinian traveller, Salt, has given his name. It was not so large as a hare, but very elegantly formed; the head light and delicate, with prominent black eyes, and little annulated straight horns. Its colour was a dunnish or iron grey, the hair rather coarse, I thought, for so small an animal. I had not quite killed it, and Lohitu ran up, but afraid of injuring his spear by missing his aim, and striking only the ground, he kept shaking it inmid-air, as if going to dart it at the poor thing, every time, that with a broken leap, it attempted to escape. Moosa and Adam Burrah, followed by a crowd of others, came running up on hearing Ohmed Medina shout for the latter, who being a very zealous sportsman, I had constituted my head forrester on occasions of the chase. The trivial cause for so much stir excited a loud laugh, and two or three of the boys rushing in soon secured the dying animal, over which a timely “Ul Allah” was said, and so sanctified it for food.