There are two lines of road from Zayla to the ancient capital of the Hadiyah empire. The more direct numbers eight long stages through the Eesa territory, and two through the mountains of the Nola tribe of Gallas. In this country the "gedi " corresponds with the "hamlah" of Arabia: it is a stage varying from four to five hours. The camels are laden at dawn, and they proceed leisurely till about 10 A.M., when they are allowed to rest and feed. The march is resumed in the afternoon, and at nightfall the beasts and baggage are deposited in a thorn fence, which serves as a protection against lions and plunderers. I estimate the average progress to be 15 miles per diem; in places of danger the Somal are capable of marching 27 or 28 without a halt; on the contrary, when water and pasture abound, they content themselves with a single short march. Shermarkay objected to my travelling by the direct route on account of the Eesa and the Gallas. These tribes inherit from their ancestors the horrible practice of mutilation. They seek the honour of murder, to use their own phrase, " as though it were gain," and will spear a pregnant woman in hopes that the unborn child may be a male. Then bearing with him his trophy, the hero returns home and places it before his wife, who stands at the entrance of her hut uttering shrill cries of joy and tauntingly vaunting the prowess of her man. The latter sticks in his tufty poll an ostrich feather, the medal of these regions, and is ever afterwards looked upon with admiration by his fellows.
The route which I pursued is by no means direct; its sole merit is that, after a march of about 50 miles through the Eesa territory, the merchant enters the lands of the Gudabursi Somal, amongst whom life is, comparatively speaking, safe. My compass bearings were as follow:-
1. Place................................... Direction. S.E.....Distance (ml)
2. From Zayla to Gudingaras........165 deg...........19
3. From Gudingaras to Kuranyeli.145................ 8
4. From Iiuranyeli to Adad............225.................25
5. From Adad to Damal.................205................11
6. From Damal to ilarmo...............190................11
7. From ilarmo to Jiyaf..................202................10
8. From Jiyaf to Halimalah............192.................7
9. From Halima]ah to Aububah.....245................20
10. From Aububah to Koralay.........165................25
From Koralay to Harar................260...............65
The distances give a total of about 202 miles. As regards the naumes of stations, it must be observed that the Somali, like the Bedouins of Arabia, the Todas of the Neilgherry hills, and other wild races, are profuse in nomenclature of every feature of ground. Each little watercourse, hill, dale, and plain, is distinguished by some descriptive term: " Adad," for instance, denotes the quantity of gum found upon the banks of the fiumara; Koralay (the " saddle-like ") describes the peculiar appearance of a mass of rock.
To resume the narrative of my trip. Our little caravan, consisting of about twenty well-armed men and two women cooks, was led by one Raghe, a petty chief of the Eesa tribe. Shermarkay had constituted him our abban or protector; in return for food and sundry presents of cloth and " notions," he afforded us a safeguard in the hour of danger. The " Abbanat," as it is called, is an intricate subject; I may describe it generally as a primitive and truly African way of levying custom-house dues. Your " protector" constitutes himself lord of your life and property; without him you can neither buy nor sell; he regulates your marches, and supplies you, for a consideration, with the necessaries of the road. In six days we traversed the maritime plain of Zayla; its breadth is from 45 to 48 miles. Along the shore all was desert, a saline flat warted with sand-heaps and bristling with a scanty salsolaceous vegetation. The sun singed as through a burning-glass, and the rare wells yielded a poor supply of bitter bilge-water. As we advanced inland, the country improved. Frequent fumaras, or freshets, fringed with shrubs and thorn trees of the liveliest green, showed traces of the copious African monsoon. The ground was covered with a growth of yellow grass not unlike an English stubble; the kraals of the nomades appeared scattered over its surface; long lines of milch camels tossed their heads as they were being driven to pasture; numerous sheep, white as snow, flocked the plain; the beautiful little sand-antelope bounded over the bushes; and flights of vultures, unerring indicators of man's habitation in these lands, soared in the cloudless skies. Wherever we halted we were surrounded by wandering troops of Bedouins. The coarser sex is almost black and exceedingly plain, but tall and well made: their frizzly hair is dyed dun by a mixture of ashes and water, and its only Macassar is a coat of melted sheep's fat. The toilette is simple - a dirty cotton cloth covering the loins, leathern sandals, a round targe, a long dagger strapped round the waist, and two spears. The women are mostly habited in chocolate-coloured leather fringed at the border; their ornaments are zinc earrings, armless of the same material, a necklace of beads, and a fillet of blue cloth worn only by matrons. The girls plait their wiry locks into numerous little pigtails, and the heads of the naked children are shaved in a gelated fashion, with a crest of curly hair.
By the power of my star, I escaped a large plundering-party of Habr Awal horsemen, who were sweeping the plain with malicious intentions. A few rifle bullets would doubtless have beaten them off; in this land, if you clear two saddles per cent., the remainder will surely run. But pilgrims and peaceful travellers should avoid using carnal weapons, especially if they intend progress in Eastern Africa. On the 3rd of December we arrived at the southern frontier of the Eesa tribe, under the hills which form the first step to the highlands of Ethiopia and fringe the Somali coast from Tajurrah to Jerd Hafun or Guardafui; their formation is successively limestone, sandstone, and granite in the higher regions. The air became sensibly cooler, and we remarked an increased degree of fertility, together with traces of a monsoon which lasts from June to September in the torrent beds and cataracts which seam the faces of the hills. When I traversed this country it was a desert, the cold having driven the pomades to the maritime plain, but thorn fences and rings dotted the slopes, showing that in summer it is thickly inhabited. On the 7th December we threaded a fumara, the primitive zigzag of these lands, and stood upon the summit of the maritime chain.
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Richard Burton Trip to Harar