CHAPTER XIV.
Description of the plain of Sagagahdah.—Dowaleeka Lake.—Effects of mirage.—Slave Kafilah.—Write letters to Aden.—Retire from camp with Lohitu.—Interview with Mahomed Allee.
Theplain of Sagagahdah is of considerable extent. It stretches in one straight line from the country of the Issah Soumaulee, in the south-east, to Jibel Obinoe, in the north-west, a distance of more than thirty miles, with a uniform width of between five and six miles. The sides are flat-topped parallel ridges, from four to five hundred feet high, being the abrupt termination of elevated volcanic plateaus. That to the north is called Dulhull, and separates the plain of Sagagahdah from the one of a somewhat similar character, occupied by the Lake Abhibhad. The ridge to the south is called Mahree. During the season of the greatest rains, the plain of Sagagahdah is a complete morass, or shallow lake, collecting the waters that flow over the Dulhull and Mahree ridges. These numerous little streams seem constantly to be forming new channels, for but a few yards from a deeply-cut and apparently very convenient watercourse, the travellersometimes observes, the torrent rushing down a precipitous and evidently a very recent one. This interesting geological phenomenon is to be attributed to the occurrence of frequent earthquakes in this situation, which have the effect of altering the previous level of the country. Another striking evidence of this was pointed out to me by Ohmed Medina, whose naturally inquiring mind, led him to ask of me a solution of that which to him and to others also who mentioned it, was a very remarkable circumstance. A large lake, it appeared, had come into existence within the last six years, in an adjoining plain, called Dowaleeka, similar to the one of Sagagahdah, and a constant sheet of water which abounded in leeches now occupied its upper end, where previously a regular Kafilah route had existed to Shoa.
The sides of these fissured plains, I think, at a certain depth, must meet in a synclinal axis; but time has nearly filled the valley between, to their present level, with the detritus of the rocks around, and the marly deposition from the evaporated water, collected in them during the season of the rains. In the plain of Lukhee, a day’s journey more to the west, this operation of filling up has proceeded, even to the forming of one general level of the country, and the alluvial soil of the former valley is now continuous, with the stony summits of the bounding ridges.
Coming from the opposite side, diagonally acrossto our station, could be now seen the stranger Kafilah, camel after camel, emerging from the mirage in a long-extended line. The effect of this natural phenomenon, the mirage, was greater than I expected. The very perfect and natural resemblance it bears to water, the reflection even of the adjoining ridges as perfectly distinct as from the surface of a lake, contributing very much to the illusion. To ascribe to any traveller the originality of the beautiful expression, “ships of the desert,” as applied to that useful animal the camel, is an injustice to the simple elegance of natural ideas. Not one, but half a dozen of the Bedouins, came to me in succession, and directed my attention to the broad and enlarged figure of the camel with its burden, as it appeared through the medium of the mirage, and all expressed themselves exactly in the same terms, that it was the ship of their country, and any one who has seen the camel in such a situation would have immediately suggested to his mind, a distant vessel sailing end on before a breeze, with all its studding sails set, so exact a resemblance is observed between it and the distorted image of the laden camel.
The merry sound of the laughing, chatting, singing, infant children, who formed the bulk of a Kafilah of at least two hundred slaves, now gradually reached us, increasing, as they approached, into the buzzing hubbub of a crowd of people, who at length passed us, and halted for the day, at thedistance of about half a mile from our camp, eastward.
The people of both Kafilahs soon mixed with each other with the best feeling imaginable, interchanging salutes and repeating to each other the most important news from their respective starting-places. The new-comers had been thirty-eight days from Shoa, and at a day’s journey on this side of the Hawash, had been attacked by the Hittoo Galla, who had killed two of the Kafilah men, and seven of the smallest children of the slaves, for these unfortunates are always murdered, if their captors in such forays find it impossible, as in this instance, to carry them away. Several of the Galla were also slain. News of the British Embassy I could not obtain, except that the last detachment of stores had got safely up, and that the Ras ul Kafilah on that occasion, Mahomed Allee, was now at the head of the present return one. I was also told that forty of the slaves belonged to him, and that they had been given to him by our Ambassador in Shoa. Such was the report, but of course I understood this properly, that the money Mahomed Allee had received for his services he had laid out in the purchase of slaves, in the like manner that Ohmed Mahomed and Ebin Izaak, were taking up with me to Shoa, the dollars paid to them in Tajourah by Mr. Cruttenden, to invest in the same revolting merchandise.
The principal men of either Kafilah were nowsitting in two adjoining circles, whilst Lohitu sat apart with a stranger who had joined us from a direction exactly opposite to that in which the new arrivals had come. As they sat within a few yards of me, I perceived that he bore on his breast the “Arriah,” or incised figure of the Debenee tribe; and I concluded, therefore, he was some member of the family of the Chief; Zaido, however, who had a very acute eye to perceive any threatened or rather suspected danger, whispered to me, as he pushed my breakfast of rice into my hut, that an Issah Soumaulee was talking to Lohitu. As I could not understand how it happened that one of this hated tribe dare venture alone among the Debenee, I set the man down to be a half-blood, which would also account for his being marked with the peculiar symbol of that tribe.
These two were soon joined by a third, another stranger to me, who came from the calahm circle of the Shoa Kafilah, and brought with him a small coil of brass wire, weighing, perhaps, one ounce or so, which Lohitu received in his usual silent manner, and deposited beneath his tobe. I had promised Mr. Cruttenden to write to Aden by every opportunity, and as I considered this an admirable one, from the previous connexion of Mahomed Allee with the English, I sent to Ohmed Mahomed to request that he would bring him to me, that besides the letter I intended to send, I might also give him some verbal message to Capt. Haines orMr. Cruttenden. Ohmed Mahomed immediately appeared, but refused to let Mahomed Allee come to receive the letter, adding, that the latter would not be allowed to take it to Aden, even if I gave it to him, as the Sultaun of Tajourah would not permit him to enter that town. As, however, I persisted in my desire to employ Mahomed Allee, whom I knew to be well thought of by the authorities in Aden, Ohmed Mahomed at length consented to bring him, and went away for that purpose. In about half an hour he returned, and having introduced Mahomed Allee to me, I gave him my letters for Capt. Haines, and one for home, informing him that on their delivery in Aden he would receive a boxeish or present, as usual, for his trouble.
After concluding this business to my satisfaction, I went with Lohitu, at the request of Ohmed Mahomed, some distance from the camp, and we sat down amidst the ruins of some loose stone walls, where formerly a large kraal had been. This move was suggested, I thought, by a desire to save me from the pestering applications of the Bedouins of Mahomed Allee’s Kafilah, who had previously surrounded my hut in crowds, begging for everything that could enter into the mind of a Dankalli as constituting riches, such as needles, buttons, paper, gunpowder, and brass wire.
For two hours did the mighty Chief of the Debenee and I sit in gloomy silence, both buildinglittle walls and pyramids of the loose stones that lay within our reach, until we had cleared the whole neighbourhood of all but the larger ones. As I now got rather tired of my occupation, I made one or two attempts to get up, as hints to my companion that we should be going. Each time, however, he laid hold of my Arab frock, and pointing again to my place, he intimated that I was in his charge, and that until the sun was down I must stay with him. Being particularly quiet when I cannot help myself, I made a virtue of necessity, and took up my old position, and for occupation proposed to fix around the head of Lohitu’s spear, the brass wire which I had seen given to him in the morning. By the time that business was completed to the satisfaction of the Chief, who in return gave me a whip made of the hide of the hippopotamus, the sun had set, and we returned to the camp; I retiring to my hut, and Lohitu to a group of Tajourah people, with whom he soon squatted in an earnest calahm.
No sooner had I taken my seat and called to Zaido about getting me some supper, than a fierce-looking stranger forced aside the mat, which depending from the roof of the hut, overhung the entrance. My usual exclamation of “Cutta,” “Cutta,” Go away, Go away, on such occasions of intrusion, was unheeded, and without any ceremony, and quite undeterred by the pistol I had already seized, the man took his seat on my mat,and putting his hands to his breast, with a kind of salutation and a smile of introduction, said, “Mahomed Allee,” and then in Arabic asked me if I had no letters to send down to the Commander at Aden, for by that name is Capt. Haines generally known among the Dankalli merchants. Zaido at this moment making his appearance, I appealed to him, if this were Mahomed Allee, and Zaido, who looked anything but comfortable, reluctantly admitted that it was, stammering out at the same time, that “Mahomed Allee had better go away.” The latter, however, did not understand this, but laughed most sneeringly, as he said, “Cutta,” with a contemptuous wave of the hand, that made Zaido back expeditiously out of the hut, carrying on his shoulders the hanging door mat.
Being determined not to allow myself to be so imposed upon as I had evidently been by Ohmed Mahomed, I tore a leaf out of my note-book, having exhausted all the paper I had taken out in the morning, except that on which I wrote my letters, in presents to the begging Bedouins. Upon the abstracted leaf I wrote a hasty note, telling Capt. Haines of the deception practised upon me, and recommending that no present should be given to the counterfeit Mahomed Allee, as a punishment for his impudence. This being made up into a note, was carefully deposited by Mahomed Allee, between the double fold of ox-skin which formed the scabbard of his knife, and which is made a convenientreceptacle by the Dankalli, for many trifling articles, such as needles, snuff, or thread. Mahomed Allee now informed me, that he had got letters to Aden from the Political Mission in Shoa, and also desired me to write down in my note-book the name of a kraal, where were deposited seventeen packages and boxes, he had been obliged to leave on the road, when in charge of the last English Kafilah that had gone up to Shoa. He attributed this abandonment to the numbers of his camels that had died upon the march from the scarcity of water. He also said that no difficulty would be incurred, for the Bedouin who had them in charge, was a relation of his own, and would himself take them along with the present Kafilah to Shoa. After this Mahomed Allee retired, asking me only for a handful of tobacco, which I bade Zaido to give him, but was afterwards obliged to increase the niggardly bestowal of my servant, by taking the skin bag from him, and shaking its contents into the open tobe of my new acquaintance.
I should not have slept well that night, if I had not told Ohmed Mahomed of the deception he had practised upon me, and as he came to my hut a few moments after Mahomed Allee had left, I took care to mention it. He excused himself very coolly by saying, that Lohitu had promised to cut the throat of Mahomed Allee, before he reachedGobard, suiting the action to the word, by sawing away at his own throat with the edge of his open hand, and adding, “that then all the letters given to him by the Embassy in Shoa, would be taken from him and carried to Aden by Mahomed Murkee,” the man whom he had passed upon me, for Mahomed Allee. It was certainly not very agreeable, to be thus made the confidant of an intended murder, especially when the victim was a man I was inclined to think well of, not judging from the little I had seen of him myself, but from the recommendations he had received from the missionaries, Messrs. Isenberg and Krapf, whom he took up on their first visit to Shoa, and also from the commendations I had heard bestowed upon him by Mr. Cruttenden in Tajourah. I determined therefore that, at all risks, I would exonerate myself from becoming an accomplice before the fact, should the assassination take place, by revealing the whole design to Mahomed Allee, and also exert my influence with Lohitu to procure for him a safe passage through the country of the Debenee. It was too late to do anything this night, although Mahomed Allee and his friends were still squatting, a very few yards in front of my hut. Fearing, however, that some attempt was about to be made upon the party by the friends of Ohmed Mahomed, who were also gathering into acalahm, I was obliged to call out to him to go away, which I did, in a tone that he understood very well to be intended as a warning; and he and his three or four friends accordingly got up, and retired to their own Kafilah.
During the afternoon of to-day, whilst I sat with Lohitu at the ruined kraal, I could not help observing the innocent curiosity, not unmixed with fear, with which the little slave-girls came to have a peep at me. Lohitu himself could not resist smiling, at the occasional hasty retreat of those who happened to come near me, before they were aware of their situation. They were employed in collecting for fuel, dried camel’s dung, and the little rotten sticks that had floated with the last rains into the plain. Their ages varied from eight to fourteen years. I saw no slaves in this Kafilah who exceeded those years, and I was given to understand that most of them were Gurague Christians. A few boys were also to be seen amongst them who ran stark naked; or else with only a bit of old ragged cloth, tied by the two ends under the chin, and hanging behind upon their neck and shoulders. The girls wore a chemise of the same dirty description, gathered around the waist by a piece of plaited or twisted palm-leaf rope. They were, without exception, most interesting and sharp-looking little things, and did not appear to befatigued by their long journey, or ill-used by their masters. The necessities of a licentious religion is pandered to by the slave-trade carried on between the sea-coast and the interior of Africa; and no greater blow could be struck at Mahomedanism than by putting an end to this anti-human traffic.