txhvary of trhe trheolo^icd ^mimvy PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY PRESENTED BY Del^van L* Pierson J)T37 / .V&5 ABYSSINIA Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/abyssiniathroughOOvivi_0 ABYSSINIA^"" Of P8//V SEP 2619! Through the I.ion-Land To the Court of the Lion of Judah BY HERBERT VIVIAN M.A AUTHOR OF "TUNISIA AND THE MODERN BARBARY PIRATES," "SERVIA : THE POOR MAN's PARADISE," &C WITH 80 ILLUSTRATIONS AND TWO MAPS NEW YORK LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. 1901 MY LADY I DEDICATE THIS RECORD OF A JOURNEY WHEREOF THE GREATEST HARDSHIP WAS HER ABSENCE " 'Tis a very excellent piece of work, madam lady; would 'twere done." Preface The Queen of Sheba made a long journey to visit Solomon, wisest of kings. To-day whoso is wise will wish to explore the land of her descendant, Menelik, King of the Kings of Ethiopia, Conquering Lion of Judah. Tourists have exhausted the interest of modern lands ; they have penetrated the fringe of countries, like Turkey and Morocco, where the Middle Ages still survive ; but it has not yet occurred to them to go a step further back, and observe for themselves how men lived and thought forty centuries ago. We delight in roaming amid the ruins of Pompeii because we fancy that every stone has a hidden story of the glorious days of Rome, that we are brought somehow face to face with the old world and may breathe its atmosphere, realising the small details of everyday life as no book can ever suggest them. Yet must we come away with a dull sense of incompleteness. Though stones may speak, they need interpreters as a fossil bone needs a scientist to reconstruct a mammoth. How differently would Pompeii convince us if it had been preserved with all the ancient buildings unimpaired and the populace viii PREFACE still pursuing their daily avocations. That is the way in which Ethiopia brings home to us the daily life of Bible kings and patriarchs. We are not left to grope among ruins, but we rub shoulders every hour with men and women whose manners and thoughts, cares and pleasures have remained practically un- altered by the lapse of time. Consider how near to us this strange survival of the old world remains. A luxurious steamer takes us in a few days to the busy port of Aden, home of hospi- tality ; we cross quickly into Africa, we hire camels for our baggage, we bestride our mules, and in a few^ hours we are w^andering among pastoral tribes and approaching the lair of lion or hippopotamus. The religion of Abyssinia is probably the most ancient form of Christianity extant, and I am willing to wager that a description of her ceremonies may appeal even to the most humdrum Protestant amongst us. He may scoff at the dances of priests, w^ho wave their long wands in dreamy cadence, or at the strange stuffed birds which hang suspended from the roofs of churches, but he cannot refuse a tribute to the antiquity of a ritual which reflects the days of King David and the Prophets. Apart from their history and origin, the Abyssinians afford a fascinating study as the only African people who may one day defy and even rival European civilisation. Nobody knows and everybody wants to know what the attitude of Abyssinia is likely to be towards ourselves and our rivals. I hope to be able to throw some light upon this point, for I have talked PREFACE ix with all sorts and conditions of people in Abyssinia, from the Emperor Menelik II., who gave me an audience of forty minutes, down to members of what might be called the Young Abyssinia Party, who wish to introduce all the barbarism of civilisation into a land which has remained unspoiled since the days of the Queen of Sheba, mother of Menelik I. Yet, let the critical make no mistake. I do not claim to have written an exhaustive monograph of Abyssinia, as I once did of Servia. I offer mere impressions. I shall be satisfied if I succeed in conveying those impressions to the public. At the same time I venture to anticipate a certain interest for the narrative of an expedition by caravan, undertaken by one whose adventures had hitherto been bounded by cities and railways. Any one who goes at all far afield usually tries to make out that his difficulties have been enormous. This is partly due, no doubt, to the desire to be considered bold and brave — a form of vanity from which even the most timid are rarely free. It may also be ascribed to a fear lest the exploit should become hackneyed and the credit of exploring be diminished thereby. After readinor all sorts of books on African travel, I imao-ined that all sorts of hardships, miseries, and dangers would confront me. It was therefore a pleasant surprise to find no poisonous snakes in my bed, no scorpions in my boots, no hordes of wild men lying in ambush for me by the way, and no ferocious beasts prowling into my tent during the small hours. Indeed, beyond such minor discomforts as rain and flies, from which X PREFACE after all we are not quite free in this country, I had small cause for complaint. Nay, further, I can safely recommend this kind of journey as the best tonic imaginable. I soon found I could do all sorts of things which I should never have dreamed to be possible at home, such as riding all night or snatching an hour's sleep by the roadside with a tuft of grass for my pillow in a flood of rain. By proving how easy the thing is, I shall be affording a number of people a very welcome opportunity of doing something new and strange, which they never thought of doing before. I claim to show that any- body who possesses average health and strength — a lady almost as easily as a man — can go through the big game country and visit strange African peoples without much greater danger or discomfort than w^ould be involved in cycling from London to Brighton. This is good news, for which I venture to anticipate a small cruerdon of trratitude. o o H. V. January 15, 1900. [My cordial thanks are due to Colonel Frith, Captain Harrington, Mr. Harold, Colonel Sadler, and Mr. Gerolimato for all the kindness they showered upon me at Aden, Addis Ababa, Zaila, Berbera and Harrar respectively ; to Captain Harrington and Captain Powell-Cotton for the loan of their beautiful photographs ; also to Mr. Pearson for entrusting me, on behalf of his newspaper, with a mission to Ethiopia.] Contents PREFACE Historical Introduction Origin — ^Foundation of Aksum — Conversion to Christianity — A Hebrew Dynasty — Prester John — Portuguese Jesuits — Theodore — Tlie Napier Expedition — Italian Aspirations — Menelik — The Empress Taitu — Italian Intervention — The Treaty of Uchali — Victorious Abyssinia . Chapter I THE GARDEN OF ADEN A Bad Name — Street Scenes — Hospitality — The Tanks — Water— Salt Works — Climate .......... Chapter II WAYS AND MEANS Ignorance about Abyssinia — Formalities at Aden — A Programme for Travellers — The Secret of P^quipment — The Folly of Filters — The Key to an Abyssinian Heart — Physic and other Fetishes — Snakes and Snake Stories — Recruiting a Retinue — A Phantom Chambermaid — "Chits" and Cheats — An Ideal Butler — The Pilgrim — h cordoji noir — "Tomboys" ........... Chapter III BRITISH SOMALILAND A Leap in the Dark — From Asia to Africa — Berbera — Bulbar — Zaila — A Colonial Triumph — Somali Constabulary — Administration — Security — A British Proconsul at Work — The Irish of Africa— Murder as a Sport xi CONTEXTS Chapter IV THROUGH THE LAND OF LIONS PAGE Loading Camels — Engaging a Caravan — The Plunge — Passive Resistance — Somali Humour — A Grand Palaver — The Pilgrim's Progress— The Freedom of the Desert — The Monotony of the March — The Desert Described — Gildessa — A Barbaric Dance — A Pagan Love-rite . . 64 Chapter V ENTERING ABYSSINIA Approaching Harrar — An Ancient and Mysterious Town — Rocky Streets — The Harrari — The Lion Hotel — Wild Scavengers — Bazaars — A Paradise for Small Incomes — A Health Resort — Farming — Openings for Labour — Mining — Imperial Attentions — Delays at Harrar — Lake Aramaya — Forests — A Telephone Station — Hawash River — An Alarm in the Desert — Shoa -A Fairy Ride — Sad Somalis . . . . .107 Chapter VI PLEASURES OF PILGRIMAGE Sport — Fearlessness of Game — Jackals — Antelopes — Elephants — Monkeys — A Brush with a Lioness — Birds — Flies — Locusts — Creeping Things — Moths — Without Matches — Rain Everlasting — Sunburn— A Mule Caravan — Firing Sore Backs — Obstructive Mulemen — A Crisis — A Raid — I must Draw my Revolver . . . . . . .140 Chapter VII MENELIK AND HIS CAPITAL Where was the Capital ? — The British Agency — Abyssinian Architecture — A Movable Capital — Barracks— Locomotion — The British Minister — Horses and Dogs — An Abyssinian Irishman — Climate — Foreign Lega- tions—Captain Ciccodicola— M. Lagarde — Republican State — Russian Officials — Market Day — Horse-dealing — Audience of the Emperor — The Palace — Kissing Hands — Presents — Sympathy for England — An Impression of Menelik — Appearance — Manner — Education — Character — Detractors — The Emperor's Band — Habits— The Empress . . 168 Chapter VIII THE ABYSSINIANS AT HOME The Jewry of Africa — Greetings — A Vocabulary for Travellers — Grovelling — Snobs — Insults — Free-and-Easy Manners — Gluttony — Feudal Re- tainers — Leechcraft — Gifts — Voices — Costume — Games — Music — Dancing — Chattering — Gallas — Dusky Damsels — At the Wells — In the Fields — Perambulators — Good Looks — Hairdressing — Dirt — Marriage 210 CONTEXTS xiii Chapter IX ABYSSINIAN ADMINISTRATION PAGE The Succession — " Liberalism " — Taxation — Money — ^Justice — Prisoners — The Army — Military Prospects — Barbarities of Warfare — Custom- houses— H. E. a Village Governor — Garasmach Banti — Black Red Tape — Local Passports — Lagahardim — A White Elephant — Choba — Detained by Officials — More Worries — Greed at Gildessa . 235 The Epiphany — Raising an Altar— The Kalendar — Christmas at the Capital ■ — Christmas Dinners — Coptic Monks — Suspicion of Foreigners — A Monastery — Harrar Cathedral — S. Mar}-'s, Entotto — Ecclesiastical Art — Bargaining for Admission — Church Books — A Church Service — The Dance of the Priests — Rattles ....... 266 Engaging Mulemen — A Dilatory Departure — Wayside Amenities — An Ancient Mystery — Strange Rivers — A Tropical Storm — A Night March — White Snakes — A Night in an Open Boat — ^Jibuti — A Second Delagoa Bay — The Question of Arms — Obock — Perim — Somalis Transformed — The Future of Abyssinia — Openings for Explorers — Ziquala — Northern Abyssinia — The Mad Mullah . . . .291 Chapter X ABYSSINIAN CHRISTIANITY Chapter XI HOMEWARD HO! APPENDIX I., ITINERARY II., OUTFIT . INDEX 333 334 337 List of Illustrations ' PAGE Berbera 38 39 The Custom House at Berbera ......... 40 Zaila. The Market Square ......... 43 ,, The British Postman ......... 49 Loading a Camel ........... 66 Camel-mats used as Tents .......... 67 A Palaver of Camelmen . . . . . . . . . . 81 The Departure of my Deck-chair ........ 83 Cooking in Camp ........ Facing page 88 Approaching Gildessa .......... 89 The Torrent-bed of Gildessa ......... 90 Women Selling P\iel at Gildessa . . . . . . . -91 A Street in Gildessa ........... 94 Abyssinian Women Servants Pounding Red Pepper 95 " Salaam Allah ! " . . . 98 Candelabra Cactus at Balawa . . . . . . Facing page 104 An Abyssinian Guardhouse . . . . . . . . .108 Approaching Harrar ........... 109 Harrar .......... Facing page 1 10 A Street in Harrar in Women Selling Fuel in a Street of Harrar . . . Facing page 112 Entrance to Ras Makonnen's Palace, Harrar . . . . . -113 The Gate with the Elephants' Tails 114 Breaking up Sods to make Walls ..... Facing page 121 Fording the Hawash . . . . . . . . . . -131 132 M , 133 134 Skins and Horns packed up al Tadechamalka ...... 143 Lesser Koodoo ............ 144 ,> ^, 145 ,, ,, 146 Ant-Hill in the Jungle 147 Where is the Capital ? 169 Menelik's Palace 170 r not otherwise stated, the photographs were taken by the Autlior. XV XVI LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE British Agency Compound. ... . . . 171 Building .......... . 172 J 5 • J J • 174 Thatching. ......... • 175 Addis Ababa ......... . . . 176 • 177 A Ravine in the Capital ....... . . . 178 . 179 On the Way to Market . . . 187 Two Bird's-nest Constructions ...... . 188 The Regulation Straw-umbrella ..... . 189 Mule Market, Addis Ababa . 191 Banqueting Hall of Menelik's Palace where 2,000 Warriors eat Raw Meat together . ....... Facing page 195 The Imperial Pavilion ....... Facing page 196 Menelik . 196 Verandah of Menelik's Palace, with a Group of Courtiers . Facing page 203 . 208 Galla Huts on the Way to Harrar ..... Facing page 227 Captain Harrington entering Harrar ..... . 228 Women at a Well ........ Facing page 229 Somali Husband with Wife-whip ..... • 233 Donkeys Laden with Bars of Salt, the Abyssinian Sixpences Facing page 239 Menelik's Dollar . 241 An Abyssinian Prisoner and his Warder .... . 244 Huts of Abyssinian Soldiers ; the Woman on the left is Sewing Facing page 246 Preparing Durgosh ........ . 246 Giklessa : the Governor's House on the Hill . Facing page 251 My Abyssinian Passport ....... . 256 Choba Custom-house, Look-out Nest ..... . 261 Raising an Altar ........ . 268 Christmas at Addis Ababa . . . . 270 Menelik's Guard outside Tukul where Priests are Dancing . . 271 Menelik Keeping Christmas ...... . 272 Old Minaret in the Courtyard of Harrar Cathedral Facing page 279 Church of S. Raguel, Entotto \ 282 A River in East Africa ....... . 296 A Dry Torrent-bed ........ . 297 Facing page 301 Jibuti Facing page 3 1 1 Alxli at Jibuti • 313 Historical Introduction Origin— Foundation of Aksum— Conversion to Christianity — A Hebrew Dynasty — Prester John — Portuguese Jesuits — Theo- dore—The Napier Expedition — ItaHan Aspirations — Menelik — The Empress Taitu — Italian Intervention — The Treaty of Uchali — Victorious Abyssinia. V ERV little is known about the history and origin of Abyssinia, which has always been regarded more or less as a land of romance. The word Ethiopia, like L)d^a, has been used by classical authors to express the whole of Africa or, still more vaguely, all countries inhabited by black men. Homer, always inclined to be descriptive rather than precise, informs us that the populations of Ethiopia, the most remote in the world, live some towards the rising and others towards the settinor sun." The first definite information about the country comes from Aksum, which was founded in the days of the patriarch Abraham and served as residence for the Queen of Sheba. In 300 B.C. Ptolemy took it and set up obelisks, which remain there to this day. It became the centre of the ivory trade, and Pliny tells us that Roman merchants had dealings there. The origin of Abyssinian Christianity, like that of everything else Abyssinian, is delightfully vague. According to one theory, a young Christian was ' B 2 ABYSSINIA wrecked on the Abyssinian coast in the year 333 and promptly converted the country. Another version is that Abyssinia was not really converted until 600, when some monks came over from Egypt. Abyssinia increased in prosperity and enterprise, conquering Yemen and being solicited by Justinian for an alliance against the Persians. Then the tide of Islam began to advance, and the Abyssinians went back perforce to their own side of the Red Sea. Nay further, there were driven in from Egypt many Jews, called Falasahs. These were of the old warlike stamp, and claimed to have settled in Africa during the reign of King Rehoboam. So strong were these Jews that they contrived to seize and keep the government of a great part of the north of the empire, and to set up a line of Hebrew kings, who remained undisturbed for nearly eight centuries, until the line became extinct in 1800, and the supremacy of the Negus of Shoa was acknowledged once more. Throughout the Middle Ages we may picture Abyssinia in a state of even more constant turmoil than that which has continued to the present day. Beside their own civil wars, they were constantly fighting with the various Muhammadan natives in the empire. It was somewhere in the fifteenth century that Europe began to talk of the wonders of Abyssinia. Imagina- tive travellers related how the golden age had been established among her mountains under the rule of a priest-king, known as Prester John. There is no satisfactory evidence that such a person ever existed, but the Portuguese were sufficiently taken HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION by the story to send out missionaries in search of him. A certain Portuguese landed in 1490 after all sorts of odysseys and difficulties. He met with a good reception, but found to his disgust that there was a law in the land forbidding any stranger who once entered Abyssinia to go away again. By the year 1520, however, this law must have been modified, for King David of Ethiopia received another Portu- guese mission, and sent it home with a request for help against the Moslems. Accordingly 400 Portu- guese soldiers were despatched with a number of Jesuits, who attempted to induce the Abyssinian Church to accept the Roman Catholic religion. The attempt was a very pertinacious one, but by the year 1632 its failure was recognised, and the Jesuits were expelled from Abyssinia as they have been, alas, from so many other countries. In 1698 a French doctor cured the Emperor of leprosy, but it was not until the beginning of this century that Europeans began to renew their interest in the country. A craze had sprung up for discovering the sources of the Nile, just as another craze followed for reaching the North Pole. We are now approaching the modern history of Abyssinia. In 1850 an Anglo- Abyssinian treaty was signed. In February, 1855, Theodore was crowned Emperor. Two British envoys were sent out, but they were killed in civil war, and in 1862 Captain Cameron came out as their successor. Theodore was now very friendly, and he despatched a letter to the Queen of England seeking an alliance. Through the 4 ARVSSTXTA usual official mismanagement, this letter was used for a long time as a shuttlecock between the Foreign Office and the Government of India, falling finally into some pigeon-hole or waste-paper basket and remaininor unanswered. Theodore, resenting the bad manners of leavinQ; a Sovereiofn's letter unanswered, cast Captain Cameron into chains in 1863. Still the British Government remained supine, and it was only in August, 1864, that Mr. Rassam arrived at Massowa to plead for the release of our consul. But Theodore did not answer his application to come up until January, 1865. Presently he, too, was cast into chains. Still the British Government submitted tamely. Xo- thinor was done for over two vears. Then at last word came that Theodore was being worsted in civil war, and in April, 1867. he received an ultimatum bidding him release his prisoners within three months. HavinQT seen that the British wrote much and did nothinor durinof all this time, Theodore lauQrhed at the threat, reflecting that if the worst came to the worst, we should have a great deal of difficulty in bringing up an army over the three hundred miles of rough ground which separated Magdala, his capital, from the coast. However, 12,000 men were landed, and in January, 1868, Sir Robert Napier joined them as their general. His method seems to have been almost as simple and successful as that of our two most successful generals to-day. He reached Magdala on the 9th of April with- out having had to fire a shot. Then 6,000 Abvssinians swooped down upon 1,600 British. But our Snider HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 5 rifles gave us the advantage, and our losses were only 30 wounded, while theirs were 800 dead and 15 wounded. Then Theodore pleaded for peace, and liberated his captives. Sir Robert Napier insisted upon an unconditional surrender, and as the first British soldier entered Magdala Theodore shot him- self in the mouth. The brilliant little war was over. Theodore was succeeded by the Prince of Tigre, who was crowned in 1872 as " King of Kings and Conquering Lion of Judah," under the title of John It. On his death in 1889, Menelik, King of Shoa, suc- ceeded with no great difficulty. Before I proceed to give his biography, it may be interesting to sketch the origin of the Abyssinian war with Italy, for which his name will ever be held in remembrance. As early as 1850 the little kingdom of Sardinia was already beginning to make plans for the time when it should have absorbed all the other States in the Peninsula and put itself at the head of a new Italian kingdom. I have before me a correspondence between the Piedmontese F^oreign Office and an old missionary, who was acting as Vicar Apostolic to the Gallas. The question raised was how to set about obtaining a foothold in Abyssinia. All the information was carefully noted, and a few years later we find Cavour going into details with a view to immediate action. In 1869, after Theodore's defeat by the British, the plans of the Italians were ripe for fulfilment. A harbour and an island were bought for less than ^2,000 on the coast of the Red 6 ABYSSINIA Sea. Egypt and England protested, bat Lord Salis- bury was informed in 1879 that nothing political was intended, and when in 1881 the Italians beean to set up a definite colonial administration, Mr. Gladstone was in office, which is as much as to say that we allowed an infraction of our rights to pass unnoticed. By a decree of the 5th of July, 1882, the Port of Assab and its territory received the name of an Italian colony. In 1885, still with the assent of Mr. Glad- stone, the Italians went on to occupy Massowa, and the storms began to gather. Born in 1S42, a scion of the royal house of Shoa, claiming direct descent from Menelik I., the son of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon, the present Emperor was a young man of five- or six-and-twenty at the time of the expedition against Magdala. It was natural that Theodore should wish to have this youth of royal lineage and prospective importance at his court, but the despot alternated in displaying marks of affection and suspicion. One day he thrust him into prison, another day he gave him his daughter as a wife. Indeed, it was only by his acceptance of the princess, for whom he never pretended any regard, that he obtained his libertv. Havina- obtained his liberty, he soon showed that he intended to keep it. On the death of this princess, he became enamoured of Taitu, the dauorhter of a nobleman of Tiore, and in 1887 he married her, thereby proving how strong a position he held already in the Empire, for her old enemy John was still upon the throne. After his death, Menelik was crowned Emperor on the 3rd of HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION November, 1889, and Taitu was crowned Empress of Ethiopia two days afterwards. Her influence over him has always remained very strong, and remains so even now that she has grown elderly and inordinately- stout. During the reign of John, Ras Alula was Viceroy of Tigre. He conquered the Dervishes who threat- ened Abyssinia from the north, harassed the en- croaching Italians, and bade fair to put in a claim for the succession. When Menelik had succeeded in grasping the throne, he was naturally jealous of this man. So he summoned him to resign, and appointed Ras Mangasha, the son of the Emperor John, in his stead as Viceroy of Tigre. Civil war was the natural result ; and that might be allowed to pass unnoticed, for the whole history of Abyssinia has practically been one long civil war, but this time the strife proved to be of unusual importance. The Italians seized the opportunity to interfere, and pro- ceeded to back up Mangasha. This was the first time in the history of Ethiopia that an European power had interfered with the Abyssinians' privilege of slaying one another. Any one with half an eye could see that this was the first step in the inaugu- ration of an active policy of intervention by Italy. It would be wearisome to go into details of the subtle attempt to turn an Italian colony into an Italian protectorate, with the undoubted intention of eventual annexation. It was chiefly through the sup- port of Italy that Menelik was enabled to secure his succession to the throne, and in return for this 8 ABYSSINIA he consented to sign the famous Treaty of Uchali in May, 1889. This treaty was apparently a mere agreement as -to the frontier of the Italian coast colony, the per- mission for Abyssinians to supply themselves with arms, and various details of the future relationship of the two Governments. There was, however, a certain innocent-looking Article XVTL, which even- tually became a bone of contention, and, as the Italians had probably foreseen, brought about the recent war. The treaty was drawn up in Italian and Amharic. Article XVII. ran as follows in the Amharic: "His Majesty the King of the Kings of Ethiopia may make use of the Government of His Majesty the King of Italy in all matters whereon he may have to treat with other Powers or Governments." In the Italian text the word " may " was replaced by the words "agrees to" — a very different thing, implying, in fact, the acceptance of a suzerainty. When Menelik discovered this trick, he lost no time in protesting. Count Antonelli was sent as a special envoy to discuss the matter, and the Emperor invited him to dinner for the purpose. All of a sudden the Empress Taitu broke in upon the discussion, and informed the Count with some vehemence that Abyssinia would never agree to the Italian inter- pretation. "W^e too," she exclaimed, ''have our own dignity to safeguard ; in communicating the Article to the Powers, you have implied that we are under your dependence, but that is not so. Ethiopia will never accept any protectorate." Count Antonelli HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION '9 protested against this idea, and invited Her Majesty to make a proposal herself. She took up a piece of paper and wrote out the text of a new treaty. It ran as follows: ''Article I.— Article XVII. of the Treaty of Uchali is abrogated. Article II. — His Majesty the Emperor of Ethiopia engages him- self to the Government of His Majesty the King of Italy never to cede his territory to any European Power, nor to conclude any treaty, nor to accept any protectorate." This broke off the negotiations, the Count went home, and Italy resolved on war. The result of that war is too w^ell known to need relation in detail. Italy was hopelessly defeated and has now^ renounced every pretension to a protectorate. Indeed she is quite grateful to be allowed to retain her poor little strip of territory on the coast. Menelik, now secure in the independence of his country, has set to work to consolidate his rule and put down every disturbance with an iron hand. In 1899 his lieutenant, Ras Makonnen, marched into Tigre and finally defeated Ras Mangasha, the last of the oppo- nents of the present empire. And every friend of Ethiopia must hope that His Majesty may long be spared to enjoy the fruits of his courage and wisdom, and witness an era of greater prosperity than any which has gone before. Chapter I THE GARDEN OF ADEN A Bad Name— Street Scenes— Hospitality— The Tanks — Water — Salt Works — Climate. There was a sigh of relief among the Anglo-Indians on board the good ship Caledonia as we sighted the volcanic outlines of Aden. They had broken the back of their journey, and could afford to spare a breath of pity for the luckless wight whose business detained him, even for a few days or hours, on that accursed rock. There was no pause in the chorus of execration. " When the Lord had used up all His materials," said one, "He made Aden." Another quoted the Irish private's remark : ''If Aden was ony thing like what it is now, I don't wonder our first parents were onaisy." A third brought out the old sneer about a piece of tissue-paper alone separating Aden from the infernal regions. In fact, I was led to expect a sort of semi- penal settlement, not unlike Devil's Island, a natural gridiron with no water, no food, no amusements, no beauty, and the worst climate on earth. From the moment when I stepped ashore, I was in raptures. Take Crater Camp at twilight : you have a background of purple rocks, presenting an extraordi- THE GARDEN OF ADEN nary, fantastic outline, mysterious beyond the dreams of romance. Up there, on the slopes of Shum-Shum, you may discern the Towers of Silence, where the Parsees expose their dead to the vultures. And in the foreground, as an exquisite contrast, are the brightly whitewashed houses of the native quarter glistening against the shadows. Closer still, you are in the mess of the West Kent Regiment, sipping long, cool drinks, and discussing the latest new^s from the Cape, while an excellent band just below you completes the illusion of more marvellous stage scenery than was ever put upon the stage. You drive back in the moonlight to your hotel at Steamer Point, through romantic gorges and astounding tunnels, beside a sea whose hues of heliotrope, moon- stone, emerald, and lapis lazuli grow ever more ex- quisite and more varied. And the street scenes ! I could never tire of sitting on my verandah at the Grand Hotel de I'Univers, and watching the fascinating pantomime with the blue bay for its background. There is a jetty opposite, where relays of Somalis follow one another like turns at a music-hall. Twenty or thirty youths appear there in loincloths of sacking ; each bears a goat-skin which he dips into the water. All then return to the promenade facing the semicircle of Parsee shops, known as Prince of Wales's Crescent. They form in two columns, and advance at a jog-trot, singing some barbaric song, whisking their goat-skins melo- diously to right and left, jerking out water upon the thirsty road. They are the human water-carts of 12 ABYSSINIA Aden, and an hour or two later there is a sheen of salt crystals as the sole spoor of their passage. Next comes a long file of men, stalwart and robust, with bits of sacking for their only raiment, bearing aloft upon their shoulders each a square petroleum oil tin. They have been drawing upon an enormous barrel of fresh water, distilled from the sea, and are plodding their way to the hotel bath-room, where I shall presently plunge. Here is a cart, the miniature counterpart of Black Maria, drawn by a pair of humped oxen. There are coal-heavers of extraordinary blackness, ready to prove that though a lily may not be painted, a negro may yet be darkened. Yonder comes a party of Arabian Jews, recognisable not merely by their noses, but also bv the strano-e little oilv corkscrew* curls worn just in front of their ears. A man with little grey toothpicks stuck through the end of his nose, and another w*ith a tin on the top of his head, like the tile of an Orthodox pope ; horses dyed a liofht o-old colour all over, and white horses whose feet and necks have been stained deep orange ; an ordinary gari (cab) turned into a conveyance for a harem by suspending a big shawl perpendicularly from the hood — there is no end to the shivering of the kaleidoscope. Verily I know few places to rival Aden for her colour, as well as for her local colour, and I protest against those scurvy natures which are alwavs clamourino- for o;reen. Here at least they have not the excuse of the Arctic. Perchance I shall tax the credulity of geographers when I assert that Aden is in India. But I felt that THE GARDEN OF ADEN 13 I had reached India so soon as I stepped on to the P. and O. steamer at Marseilles. Still more Indian is Aden, whose Government officials, stamps, coins, even language, are those of Hindostan. Very Anglo- Indian, too, is the boundless, absolutely unrivalled hospitality of the place. I was scarcely ashore before I was invited to dinner, and made an honorary member of the club. Next day I was taken to a gymkhana — we should call it a garden-party if there were any gardens in the Garden of Aden. This was my preface to whole chapters of ceaseless gaiety. Luncheons, dinners, dances, regattas, picnics, paper- chases, receptions on board passing men-of-war, military tournaments, and water-parties were incessant. I was present one night at a delightful prize-fight, and after I left I heard that there were actually race- meetinors. Each eveninor before dinner there was a general rendezvous at the club. In fact, I felt that I had been privileged to obtain admittance into a large and almost affectionate family. I met the same people every day, and the more I met them the better I liked them. Nor need the common sightseer despair. His first visit, particularly if he have only a few hours while his boat takes coal, will be to the Tanks. Like most other amazing works, they are attributed to King Solomon and his Jinn. An inscription at the entrance announces that, "These tanks, regarding the original construction of which nothing is accu- rately known, were accidentally discovered by Lieu- tenant (now Sir Lambert) Playfair when Assistant ABYSSINIA Resident at Aden in 1854. They were then com- pletely hidden by rubbish, but were opened out and repaired by the British Government. The aggregate capacity of all these tanks exceeds twenty million imperial gallons." Further excavations might reveal further submerged marvels at Aden. What interested me most about the tanks was to hear of one which is situated in an almost inaccessible recess of the hills behind. It is frequented by great numbers of monkeys, foxes, and wild dogs, so fierce that they attack intruders unless these go in large parties and well armed. I asked an Arab attendant how all these animals found food up there on the barren rock. He replied at once, "The Lord Allah feeds them." Water is, of course, an object of much tender solicitude at Aden, and these tanks, having been constructed so as to catch every available drop on the rare occasions when rain falls, are an enormous boon. It is difficult for us to realise the sensation aroused at Aden by the appearance of a shower. A friend of mine, w^aking up to find his adjutant by his bedside in a mackintosh, could only conclude that he had just returned from a fancy dress ball. Another siorht at Aden is that of the salt works. Perhaps the sea is the most valuable asset which Aden possesses. Water is distilled from it by laborious processes, and salt extracted for the en- richment of a company. The rarity of rain and the constancy of the sun make Aden an ideal place for the industry, particularly as there is nearly always THE GARDEN OF ADEN 15 wind to assist the evaporation. The process is a simple one : you let sea-water into large shallow pans or lagoons, and leave it there until the refuse (iodine, magnesium, &c.) shall have sunk to the bottom. Then you open a sluice and turn it into another pan. Day after day you observe it growing more and more viscous, like a pond trying to freeze, until at last you can heap it into dazzling little conical piles. These ice crystals must be taken to mills and ground into a snow, which turns out to be excellent salt. I do not know of any industry at once so simple, so lucrative, and so fascinating. Each pan's output is made into a glistening mound, like a snow haystack, which may be espied for miles across the bay. The annual produce amounts to no less than sixty thousand tons. The prime charge against Aden is the climate, and no doubt the heat is disturbinof in Augrust. I am told that sleep is then almost impossible, and that you lie all night on your roof gasping for air. But in the winter there is no cause for complaint. The thermometer rarely varies more than four degrees in the twenty-four hours, say, from 78° to 82° — a delightful temperature when you know exactly what to expect. Nowhere else have 1 experienced a more luxurious thirst or found greater pleasure in quenching it. It was at the club there that I first tasted a delicious beverage called Baglehole," and when I made the acquaintance of Mr. Baglehole, the genial P. and O. agent, I could only conclude that he had been named after it. This admirable thirst is i6 ABYSSINIA peculiarly appropriate in such a metropolis of hospi- tality as Aden. It is impossible to go anywhere without being greeted with the merry invitation, " Have a drink ? " One day, soon after my arrival, I went into a mess-room to ask my way to a friend's house. An officer listened to my inquiry, and then answered as a matter of course, "Have a drink .'^ " Perhaps throughout these lines I may seem to have repeated Aden, Aden, Aden somewhat too frequently ; but for me it has a soothing melody which will always linger in my memory. Readily would I believe the legend that here is the site of the earthly paradise. Is not Abel's tomb there among the hills to dispel all doubt ? And thouo-h volcanoes or other cataclvsms may have changed the physical appearance of the spot, though trees and flowers and vegetables are precious rarities, it must always remain for me the true Garden of Aden. Chapter II WAYS AND MEANS Ignorance about Abyssinia — Formalities at Aden — A Programme foi Travellers — The Secret of Equipment — The Folly of Filters — The Key to an Abyssinian Heart — Physic and other Fetishes — Snakes and Snake Stories — Recruiting a Retinue — A Phantom Chambermaid — " Chits " and Cheats— An Ideal Butler — The Pilgrim — A cordo?t iioir — " Tomboys " Every one seems to take an instinctive interest in Abyssinia. I scarcely know why, unless it be from recollections of Dr. Johnson's delightful romance, or of that brilliant little war, when, as Disraeli puts it, we ''planted the banner of S. George upon the mountains of Rasselas." It cannot be that my fellows-countrymen, so invariably absent-minded as to the most vital issues of foreign politics until they are suddenly confronted by a crisis, should have made an exception in favour of an empire which they scarcely distinguish from the realms of romance. Indeed I hardly know any land about which crasser ignorance prevails amongst us. I defy any schoolboy to tell me the name of Menelik's capital offhand. When I made up my mind to go there I had airy notions of beginning with a visit to the chief towns on the coast, and I learned with surprise that the Ethiopian seaboard is no more extensive than that of the Swiss Republic. I consulted a tourist ^7 c i8 ABYSSINIA agency, but could not get beyond a list of sailings for the Italian port of Massowa, whereby I should have been launched upon a very fine wild-goose chase. Even when I had discovered that my avenue lay through Aden and Somaliland, my difficulties had only begun. All the authorities at Aden were vastly polite, but they vowed with one consent that they knew no more about reaching Abyssinia than about reachinor the moon. I asked the Resident for permission to cross Somaliland, but he could only regret that Somaliland was no longer under his jurisdiction. He gave me, however, a very de- lightful hint. ''The other clay," quoth he, ''a man came to ask my leave to travel in Arabia. ' I am a person of no consequence,' he told me, 'and if I disappear no one will make a fuss or ask what has become of me.' 'Well,' I said, 'that's good enough for me. If you had come with sheaves of intro- ductions, I should have had to be very wary before I let you go, but after what you have told me I shall do nothing to prevent your departure. In fact I don't want to hear any more of you or your plans, and I wish you a pleasant journey.'" "Ah! now I shall know what to say when I tackle the Somali coast authorities," I replied, and the Resident was hugely amused. So I went on quietly with my preparations for departure, merely notifying Colonel Sadler, the British Consul-General at Berbera, that I desired to pass through Somaliland into Abyssinia. My equanimity, however, did not last very long. A day or so later WAYS AND MEANS 19 I met the Captain who is in charge of the District Staff Office, and he told me that he had on his wall printed rules, laying down stringent conditions as to the escort, equipment, &c., of all persons who wished to travel through Somaliland. He advised me to see the Assistant Political Resident if I did not wish to be stopped at the outset. That gentleman assured me that no one was permitted to enter Somaliland without an escort of at least fifteen rifles. I said I had heard so many conflicting reports that I thought my best plan would be to go over to Berbera and find out the real state of things. If the worst came to the worst, I could at least set off inland without saying anything to anybody and trust to chance to pull me through. I wound up by relating the story of a friend of mine, who desired to visit the interior of the Villayet of Tripoli. He asked leave of the Pasha again and again, but it was always refused. At last he sent out his camels and luggage with a caravan, and rode out to join them unmolested. This little anecdote was far from appeasing the qualms of the Assistant Political Resident, and he said he w^oulcl not allow me even to cross over into Somaliland unless I gave him my word not to go inland without Colonel Sadler's permission. " But surely," I pleaded, "if I go without leave, the authorities are not responsible for anything that may happen to me ? " " Do not deceive yourself. There is the question of prestige. If an Englishman were killed, we could not afford to let the natives go unpunished ; otherwise 20 ABYSSINIA they would consider themselves at liberty to kill any other Englishman who might follow. If there is no danger at present in Somaliland, doubtless Colonel Sadler will let you go. Otherwise it is not fair for you to expect the country to undertake a troublesome punitive expedition for your amusement." "Well, but what about these rities ? Can I buy them here or must I wait until I can get them from England ? " " You ought to have found out all this before you set out. As it is, you can ask the General if he will let you have them from the arsenal." Back again to the General, who was as amiable as ever, but said he could only let me have the necessary rifles on my producing Colonel Sadler's permit to travel throuoh Somaliland. Back to the Assistant Political Resident to ask if the rifles might follow me into Africa on my forwarding my permit. No ; the rules and regulations were that I must be present to take them over myself from the arsenal. This opened the dismal prospect of several passages across a very nasty choppy sea in a cockleshell boat, where I was told the only accommodation would be on deck amid a crowd of unsavoury Somalis. All these ex- cursions and alarums proved, however, to be utterly groundless. I was privileged to travel to Berbera and Zaila in the luxurious Royal Indian Marine Ship Minto. Colonel Sadler assured me at once that there was no difficulty whatever about granting me a permit, and that no escort was necessary, though, if I liked, I might take a couple of soldiers from Zaila to show WAYS AND MEANS 21 that I was travelling under the aeois of the British Government. I could not but wonder at the amazing ignorance which prevails at the only avenue for Abyssinia as to the ways and means of proceeding thither. I am not presuming to blame the Aden officials, for thev have no lonorer anv official concern with Somaliland. But if ever travel in North- Eastern Africa is to become popular it will be well to post up a clerk at least with some elementary information. Meanwhile I would advise prospective pilgrims to stay at Aden, prepare there the details of their journey, and enjoy the many good gifts which that delightful station has to offer. Let them pay no heed to any advice or stipulation which may be advanced, but pursue their way with confidence and equanimity. They must go to Aden, if only to procure trusty servants, and thence to Zaila. If they proceeded to Massowa, the Italian coast town, they would not be permitted to proceed far inland, for Abyssinia is still jealous of Italy despite the late war, and though it might be possible to pass by way of Jibuti, the French colony, vexation and danger w^ould be un- avoidable. French spy-mania would be brought to bear at the port, and the consequences of French indiscretion in the interior would expose a traveller to attacks from the natives. I was quite without experience in the matter of equipment for an African journey, and of course all manner of people volunteered all 'manner of advice, but it was so hopelessly conflicting that I wisely 22 ABYSSINIA determined to disregard the greater part of it and trust to that special providence which watches over drunkards, sailors, and other improvident persons. Looking back upon it all, I am stupefied by the success which attended me. If I were recommencing to-morrow I should make very little alteration in my outfit or stores, and compared with those of other travellers I hear about, my arrangements all went by clockwork. It was an exceedingly proud day when I met a party of old hardened explorers in the heart of Abyssinia and learned that they had not a tithe of my comfort though they spent ten times as much money. I flatter myself that I had everything I wanted as far as was possible without making my baggage unwieldy. When I reached Addis Ababa, the British Minister, Captain Harrington, told me he considered the secret of successful equipment was to take as few necessaries and as many luxuries as pos- sible. This, I found on reflection, was the principle I had instinctively adopted. It would be wearisome to go into too much detail here, but I may record triumphantly that I took neither tinned nor potted meats, no Liebig, no sardines, no ship's biscuit, no desiccated foods— in a word, none of the dreary morsels which figure most prominently in an out- fitter's catalogue, whereas I was not wholly destitute of truffles, liqueurs, green peas, or foie gras. Indeed, in some respects I could wish I had resisted conventional theories even more heroically. For instance, I was persuaded, against my better instincts, to take a filter. As I am not a water- WAYS AND MEANS 23 drinker, I argued that it would be as unnecessary as any item in the outfit of the hunters of the snark, with their mousetraps and beehives against improbable eventualities. However, everybody insisted, and I took the latest German patent. I tried it one day out of curiosity, standing it in a pail and sucking away industriously at a nauseous indiarubber tube for half an hour, with the result that I extracted half a wine- glassful of brackish liquid. On the other hand, all the experts protested that it would be ludicrous to take soda-water, and I weakly restricted myself to some six dozen — a concession I regretted bitterly before I was half-way out. To cut a long story short, whiskey is an immense boon, on no account to be forootten. Doubtless it is nasty to drink, but the Abyssinians love it, and the judicious gift of a glass or bottle convinces them of their duty when threats or blows or lavish proffers of dollars would be of no avail. I remember one muleteer in particular. He would make all sorts of difficulties about trifles, and grumble about the execu- tion of nearly all my orders. At last I discovered a short cut for every knot. He would approach with his mouth full of complaints and a scowl on his brow. Directly I saw him coming, and before he had time to say a word, I would bid him wait a moment while I called to my butler for whiskey. A great grin would steal over the grumpy features, everybody all round would fall a-laughing, the clouds were dis- sipated, and I would be given my own way with a shrug. Unfortunately, however, as the days went on, 24 ABYSSINIA the rogue needed soothing in this way more and more frequently. The question of physic is one to be confronted. Hundreds of miles from doctors and chemists, we are, as a matter of fact, probably far safer than at home, in the present condition of medical lore. But we have been brought up to buy a guinea's worth of advice every time a little finger aches, and early impressions are hard to shake off. Moreover, I argued that, just as you have only to take out an umbrella to ensure a brilliant day, so should a well-fitted medicine chest ward off disease. In fact I bought things chiefly as an amulet, after lengthy consultation w4th a doctor in England and another at Aden, who ran through the whole gamut of tropical disease for my benefit. They told me the latest theory was to attribute fever to mosquito bites, ^ so I took a net which cumbered my tent very inconveniently, and various essential oils which disgusted me far more than they did the mosquitoes. They bade me, in case of snake-bite, gash the afflicted part with a knife and tie tight bandages to stop the circulation. But I know very well that I would far rather risk being poisoned than proceed to such violent measures. So I told them a story which I had from one of their own fraternity. A man came to him and exhibited a maimed hand, ^ Oddly enough, when Burton travelled in Somaliland fifty years ago, he found this theory current among the natives, but dismissed it as a " superstition " attributable to " the fact that mosquitoes and fevers become formidable about the same time." WAYS AND MEANS 25 saying, " See, I was bitten by a snake in the finger, so I cut it off at once. Was I not right ? Did this not save my life ? " After obtaining a description of the snake the doctor said, You certainly acted with great presence of mind," but commenting on the incident afterwards to his friends, he exclaimed, " I had not the heart to tell him the truth, for, as a matter of fact, the reptile was perfectly harmless." For my part, I believe I placed chief reliance upon a certain black stone from the amphitheatre of El- J em, reputed by Muhammadans to be very potent against both serpents and scorpions. This I always kept in my pocket, and almost the only snake I saw fled at my approach. Snakes (or at least snake stories) are, however, very prevalent in Abyssinia. I met an Englishman at Tadechamalka who had found an exceptionally venomous one in his bed. And a Greek at Lagahardim assured me that boa con- strictors w^ere very voracious there, often swallowing men up while they slept. Indeed, so frequent was this catastrophe that it was the habit for people sleeping in the open air to keep their legs spread well apart so that a boa might be pulled off before it had o-one too far. Probably the most important preparation of any is that of selecting servants for the journey, and I attri- bute most of the smoothness of my progress to the good fortune — or shall I say wisdom ? — of my choice. I had been told all sorts of foolish things about possible mutinies and probable desertions in the desert. But I believe the average Somali is perfectly trusty, 26 ABYSSINIA especially if he be well treated. His gratitude is easily aroused, he is cheerful even in adversity, and he is often plenteously endowed with common sense, as well as wit. The best, as well as the worst, are to be found at Aden, where contact with civilisation accen- tuates their natural points. I had ample opportunity of observing- these points while preparing for my leap in the dark. I was scarcely installed in my hotel before the news spread like wildfire that an English- man was recruiting for Abyssinia. From early morn till long past a dewless eve candidates would present themselves for my service. To appreciate the scene it is necessary to realise the surroundinors. I thouo^ht I had staved at everv possible variety of hotel, north and south and east and west and far and near, but the Grand Hotel de rUnivers at Aden was unlike any of them. No doubt it would strike an Anglo-Indian as supremely common- place, but to me it was full of freshness and originality. Indeed, I took a long time to get over the illusion that the landlord and I were playing at being on board ship. My bedroom was a saloon, with doors opening on to a long deck or verandah on each side. In the morninor I souirht the shade on the east deck, in the afternoon on the west. The doors w^ere always open, day and night, for at Aden, as in the Red Sea, everybody aims at living in a perpetual draught. The wind dries up your ink in an afternoon, and you must lay in a large stock of paperweights, for every- thing volatile is liable to be whisked off to sea at any moment. WAYS AND MEANS 27 It was impossible ever to be dull on these decks, if only for the society of the Somali chambermaid. She belonged to the lowest caste, which alone condescends to sweep tloors and empty slops, but she evidently thought no small beer of herself. When the barber declined to take no for my answer, she would whack him over the head with her broom, and hustle him ignominiously away towards the companion — I mean the stairs. All day long this broom was in her hand, and she swept, swept, swept as if fulfilling some fiendish penance. So far as I could make out, she spent her time in sweeping great clouds of dust from north to south, and then back again from south to north. Sometimes she would kneel down, collect a handful of dust, and flino- it as an oblation into the roadway, but the supply of clouds never seemed to be diminished. The presence of white men sipping coffee or " pegs " on lounge chairs was never allowed to interfere with this working out of her destiny. Like the whirlwind in Dante, " dusty to van ward, on she rode superb." Neither yells nor entreaties on my part ever availed to persuade her that she must not sweep her choking cloud straight at me. She was always imperturbable. Her big luminous eyes wore no expression of any kind ; her serious pouting lips never permitted themselves to smile. The witch seemed to take no interest in anything save her broomstick and her cloud. At last I chanced to discover a short way for putting her to flight. Her appearance always delighted me, with her coal-black skin and the original costume, which was limited to a 28 ABYSSINIA couple of coloured pocket-handkerchiefs, a massive silver necklace, a turban, and some monstrous silver earrings ; so of course I must try to photograph her. Hardly had I brought out my camera, when this usually silent creature emitted a shrill scream, and fled down the deck helter-skelter, scattering her broomstick and fresh clouds of dust as she went. Thenceforward I had but to make a movement towards the camera in order to protect myself effectively against her perse- cutions. Scarcely had I crept on to the verandah in my pyjamas to discuss toast and coffee among the dust clouds, before stealthy figures w^ould steal along the deck, shuffle off their rude fat slippers, salaam, and hold out a greasy, grimy bit of paper or packet of papers. These are known among Anglo-Indians as ''chits," and constitute the written character bestowed by previous employers. As nearly all Somalis are called either Abdul, Reggel, Muhammad, or Adah, these documents are easily interchangeable, and I have known two men proffer the same "chits" within the space of half an hour. It was therefore wise to insist upon a personal reference also. But as a rule the chaff could be sifted from the wheat in five minutes, for your Somali wears his character upon his sleeve. Some would enter my room with their slippers on, and thereby disqualify themselves at once, for by local etiquette this is a gross and inten- tional insult. Even the groom behind your dog-cart may not wear his shoes. Others with an impudent temperament would hasten to exhibit their impudence. WAYS AND MEANS 29 I remember one, whose English was ahiiost unintel- ligible, mentioning that he also spoke French. " Do you speak it better than you do English? " I inquired. " But, sah'b," he expostulated, I spik Inglees puffickly," and I wished him a puffick good morning. Another tried to cheat me out of three rupees within half an hour of his appearance with fulsome " chits," and I made bitter reflections upon the mistaken good- nature which induces some people to foist their bad servants upon the unsuspecting. To my thinking, it is worse than passing bad money, and ought to be made a felony. No doubt some manliness is required to refuse a character, but the effort should be preached from every pulpit and at every mother's knee. I myself am quite ready to supply sermons on the subject free of charge. My first choice was a providential one, and I shall have much to say about Abdi, son of Ismail, during this narrative, not only because of his influence upon my journey, but because he w^as so thoroughly typical of the ideal Somali. There must have been some- thing peculiarly taking about his manners and ex- pression, or I should never have engaged him in the face of several discourao-ing^ circumstances. To beg^in with, he arrived with the man who tried to cheat me of three rupees and seemed to be his close ally. Then his "chits" were by no means enthusiastic; one remarked drily that he had been dismissed for absence without leave ; another deplored his religious fanaticism, and his tendency to devote to prayers time which was due to his master. With unconscious 30 ABYSSINIA cynicism, it went on to say that " though so religious, Abdi is invariably cheerful," as if the two were hope- lessly incompatible. Another drawback was that he knew no Englishman in Aden to give him a personal character. However, I took a fancy to him, and engaged him on the spot as a subordinate servant. Before many days had past, my belief in him had grown so far that I made him my headman, or chief of the staff ; before we had travelled many miles I was so struck by his attentive consideration and unfailing- resource that I doubled his wages ; and by the end of the journey I wanted to bring him back to England. My shikari — shall I translate him gamekeeper ? — was also represented on his " chits as being inordinately religious, but both he and Abdi must have outgrown this, for they did not even observe Ramadan on the road ; they seemed to know that was very wrong, for when I commented upon it to Abdi he assured me in a somewhat shamefaced way that he should make up his arrears of fasting when he returned to Aden, adding, with a twinkle in his eyes, "I no forget, sah'b." This remissness was all the more repre- hensible in the case of the shikari, as he had made the pilgrimage to Mecca and traded on the reputation for sanctity which it had conferred upon him. No one ever called him by his name — it was always Hajji, Pilgrim. Neither he nor any of my men ever indulged in that parade of prayer and prostration which is so dear to the zealous Moslem. Only on the question of alcohol was there any evidence of bigotry. WAYS AND MEANS 31 The shikari was a great strapping fellow, the very picture of health and strength ; but when he had eaten too much mutton, he would give way to the most terrible depression. " Oh, sah'b ! " he would exclaim, in his quaint scriptural language, " I have a great pain in my belly." He had the faculty of irri- tating me more than any one I ever met, and I would answer roughly, Hope it'll teach you not to overeat yourself, you swine." But presently he would double himself up, vow he could carry my gun no further, and plead piteously for medicine. I would produce my flask, and tell him that a few drops of brandy would relieve him at once. He would eye it wistfully and then remark with regret, ''Not good for Muham- madan man, sah'b." The Pilgrim possessed truly wonderful " chits." He could dive like a fish, there was no one to rival him as a tracker of game, he was as bold as a lion, nothing could ever tire him, and so forth. I ascer- tained also that he was a man of some position at Aden, possessing boats of his own, and I gathered that it was rather a favour on his part to consent to accompany me. In practice I found him the stupidest of mortals. He wore on his great ugly face an habitual grin, or rather a contortion which did duty for a grin ; when his face was in repose, his mouth would remain wide open, like that of a drowsy dog hoping to catch fiies without taking any trouble. Whenever I caught sight of him I longed to kick him ; I felt I could have killed him for his grin ; and his stolid reception of my insults would increase my 32 ABYSSINIA hatred an hundredfold. UnHke any other Somali, he was entirely destitute of a sense of humour and a sense of cleanliness. Wherever he went, there was always a thick black cluster of thousands of flies congregated upon his grimy back. Like every other Somali, he always carried a gun so that it should be pointing straight at me. If he walked in front, it would be poised at right angles over his shoulder ; if he walked behind, he swung it in his hand so as to keep my back well covered. When I was riding, I would often find that six or eight men were escorting me, each with a gun pointed straight at me. I would remonstrate and take some trouble to explain how guns should be carried ; great gratitude would be expressed to me for the lesson, and five minutes later I would find that every one had returned unconsciously to his original position. The Pilgrim could not even clean a gun properly, and as to his tracking of game, I believe I surpassed him at it before I had had a week's experience. I engaged another man as headman on the strength of " chits " which were as unfairly enthusiastic as those of the Pilgrim. They also alluded to religious fana- ticism, but I had begun to disbelieve in its drawbacks. However, I soon found that if ever I turned my back for five minutes he would rush off to the nearest piece of sand and prostrate himself in prayers which seemed to last for ever. He was the very antithesis of old Daddy Longlegs. He rarely carried out any order I gave him, and always seemed to think it an ample excuse that he had been saying his prayers. Indeed WAYS AND MEANS 33 he would tell me this in a tone of solemn reproof, as if to imply that I must be a sad infidel if I ever desired him to do anything else. Fortunately I discovered his character before I left Aden, and dispensed with his services, to his infinite amazement. Besides Abdi and the Pilgrim, I engaged there Reggel, my cook, a little man of infinite cheeriness, who never grew tired or discontented, whose smiling face was always an infallible remedy against depres- sion, and, better still, whose culinary powers were little short of marvellous. In whatever desolate region we might chance to be, he would quickly collect three stones and a little brushwood, and in half an hour or so I was made happy with an excellent dinner, such as would satisfy most people at a London tavern. His Engrlish also afforded me unceasingf delight. I shall never forget the solemn, unconscious way in which he asked me one day, " What time you like your grub, sah'b ? " He used to keep the purse for current expenses, and his accounts would often be screamingly funny. " Mule's grub " was an item which never failed to delight me. On reaching Zaila I asked our Consul, Mr. Harold, what other servants I should require. He said that with my three men from Aden, the two soldiers he was going to lend me, a syce and two tent-boys from Zaila, I should have enough to take me up to Harrar. His ideas of choosing servants were far simpler than mine. At his beck, three blacks in ragged sheets and loincloths turned up one morning and stood in line on the sand in front of the Consulate. We leaned D 34 ABYSSINIA over the verandah, and surveyed them. They each stood on one leg, holding the other foot in one hand, the favourite Somali way of standing at ease. He asked them which was the syce, and they began to consult among themselves — a proceeding which might have implied that they all knew how to look after a mule, but which really meant, as I surmised, that they were all equally ignorant. However, the lot fell at last upon an ugly, slouching youth. Mr. Harold asked their names and wages, and I was told to con- sider them engaged. One of the tent-boys was called Dimbil, a solemn little man with a beard, reminding me of a respectable English butler ; the other looked very strong, but turned out very lazy, and had to be sent home from Harrar as an example. A Somali cannot say the word tent, so the pair came to be known as " the tomboys." Nadif, the syce, was very disheartening at first ; he scarcely knew the mule's head from its tail, and it seemed as though I should never teach him to put on a saddle and bridle. However, he was willing and energetic, he never showed signs of fatigue, even after running all day, and I have no doubt future employers will find him quite useful. I have now introduced the nucleus of my retinue, and will leave them to tell their own story in future chapters of my narrative. Apart from the fun to be derived from their acute sense of humour, they are worth the attention of intending travellers. Again and again I met old hardened explorers who got on very badly with their servants, so I feel that with all WAYS AND MEANS 35 my inexperience, I instinctively picked up the knack of managing Somalis, and I hope that I may impart this fncidentally to others. Mr. Harold is of opinion that most people make a mistake in bringing over their subordinate servants from Berbera or Aden, and it is certainly true that one should take Zaila men for a journey through the country of the Issas, who are their tribesmen. The tribal feeling is very strong, and in the unlikely event of a disturbance it would be a great advantage to have friends at court. Chapter III BRITISH SOMALILAXD A Leap in the Dark — From Asia to Africa — Berbera — Bulbar — Zaila — A Colonial Triumph — Somali Constabulary — Administration — Security — A British Proconsul at Work — The Irish of Africa — Murder as a Sport. Said an old Indian captain on the P. and O. steamer, " Several of us were talking about you and your journev to Abyssinia in the smokinor-room last niorht, and we all agreed that we had never heard of anything so vague and haphazard in the way of an expedition. For my part I don't believe you'll get any nearer to Abyssinia than Aden." I laughed it off, but I felt some qualms at this ill- omened remark ; for once upon a time I announced that I was going to Greenland, and some one said to me, " I don't believe you'll get any nearer to Green- land than Greenwich," which turned out to be the case. As I made my leap in the dark, my evil forebodings were deepened by the recommendations of kind friends who thouo^ht I lacked caution. \Mien I arrived on board the R.I. M.S. Minto on Friday afternoon, December i, 1899, there were loud exclamations over the two porters, who followed me with sacks of silver 36 BRITISH SOMALILAND 37 coins on their heads. To go into wild regions with such a display of wealth was courting disaster, I was told. I retorted upon my critics, without deep con- viction, perhaps, that the caravan route through Somaliland and Abyssinia was as safe as Piccadilly, but they returned that, if I walked down Piccadilly at night-time exhibiting sacks full of silver, I might chance to lose a good many of them. In the end I found an amiable merchant at Zaila, who took my cumbrous coins and gave me a letter of credit upon Harrar, where further credit was arranged for Addis Ababa, the capital of Abyssinia. I left the Garden of Aden with every regret, but the wrench of severing myself from civilisation was tempered by the pleasant company I found on board the Minto. Besides the officers of the ship I found congenial fellow-passengers in several members of the Aden garrison, some convoying troops to the Somali coast, others seeking ozone after a touch of fever, and others preparing to make scientific observations at Perim. There were also a couple of tame cheetah cubs, the peculiar pets of the captain. They were quite at home on board, and afforded constant amusement by their antics and an odd whistling noise, which one of the officers was able to imitate to perfection. The cheetah is, I believe, the connecting link between the dog and the cat, and possesses all the best qualities of both. An acquaintance of mine once brought one home from these parts and reduced it to absolute tameness, so that it would beg and trust and exhibit every variety of parlour trick. His great amusement 38 ABYSSINIA was to take it out for strolls about Kensington, when it would drive old ladies crazy by trying to play with their lap-dogs. One day it terrified a man from the Stores, who espied it at the door and dropped a basketful of glass, which was cast down and shivered to pieces. At last it grew so unpopular that he* had BERBERA. to dispose of it, but he has never ceased to regret its loss. Next day we reached Berbera, which looked exactly like the ordinary African coast town such as every book of adventure describes a hundred times. A low line of white houses and straw huts just showed above the skyline at the edge of a sandy plain, a flagstaff standing out to mark the residence of Colonel Sadler, BRITISH SOMALILAND 39 the British Consul-General. Distant hills were just discernible in the haze behind. The glare was blind- ing, but a pleasant breeze tempered the furious heat. Ships cannot come near to the town, so there was a tedious pull to the shore, then a scramble of some ten feet up a sheer wall at the end of the pier, involving BERBERA. much barking of shins. A stroll round the town re- vealed nothing of absorbing interest. One quarter was composed entirely of glistening whitewashed houses, but the greater part consisted of dingy cabins covered with ragged matting. The streets were fairly broad and straight, having been rebuilt under European direction after a fire. Tall, thin Somalis stalked about carrying long white staves over their shoulders. Most 40 ABYSSINIA of them were clad in drab sacking, but some young- dandies wore bright scarlet sashes of some fluffy material over their shoulders and loins. I came upon a curious water-tank, enclosed in a palisade, and amused myself by photographing the crowds of women of all ages, who were busy filling water-skins there. They also affected scanty drab raiment, but mostly THE CUSTOM HOUSE AT BERBERA. wore ornaments of silver and amber round their necks. Shops were few. Occasionally I descried a coffee- house, where crowds of natives were chattering over their cups both indoors and, Parisian fashion, out into the street. I was shown a shop kept by a Jew and told that he "sold everything," but I could not make out that this comprehensive term meant much more BRITISH SOMALILAND 41 than clothes and sugar, the clothes being restricted to the ubiquitous drab sacking. The Butchers' bazaar was more curious than appetising. It consisted of a framework of beams, from which were suspended scraggy scraps of what I was inclined to mistake for cat's-meat. Colonel Sadler told me there was nothing to buy at Berbera but a few Somali shields and spears. After nightfall the captain and I set out again from the Minto to dine on shore. Never have I known such pitch darkness anywhere. The only lights were those of Colonel Sadler's house and the long shivers of phosphorus set going by every stroke of the oars. Presently a servant appeared on the beach with a lantern, and we made straight for him, with the result that we were speedily stranded on a shoal. Here a large fish suddenly leaped on board. This is con- sidered a very lucky omen by the sailors, but these fish have very sharp noses and have been known to black or gouge out an eye. At last we reached the pier, and, after repeating our morning's scramble in dress clothes, had the pleasure of wading some distance through deep sand. How- ever, we were rewarded by a very pleasant dinner, as well as by the privilege of making acquaintance with Colonel Sadler's delightful dog. Among his many accomplishments is that of finding any object, which he has been given to smell, wherever it may be hidden. He has a great partiality for whiskey, and sometimes gratifies it with a distinct sense of humour. One very thirsty evening a guest was reclining in one of Colonel Sadler's long cane lounges on the verandah. 42 ABYSSINIA He placed a full tumbler of whiskey and soda by his side and proceeded to converse. Presently he stretched out his hand for his glass and gave a great start on finding it was empty. He was convinced that he had put it down full a few minutes before, equally positive that he had not touched it ; yet how could this liquid have disappeared without disturbing the glass? It was as uncanny as Maupassant's description of the " Horla," a horrid vampire which drank up the glasses of water at a man's bedside before driving him mad ; but it was all explained when the dog emerged wagging his tail and reeking indecently of spirits. Next day we stood off Bulbar, where a British Consul named Jones resides in solitary monotonous gloom. The usual row of square houses and huts on the beach with the usual flacrstaff and distant hills did o not invite me to brave the surf. Those who did so were drenched on their way ashore and then had to choose between wadinof in or beinsf carried with their legs round Somalis' necks. I preferred to remain and roll at anchor all day. On Monday, December 4th, we reached Zaila, and I took reluctant leave of my pleasant hosts of the Minto. Seen from the sea the town is the exact counterpart of Berbera and Bulbar, and does not smile upon a traveller. There were again the usual difficulties in landinof, and when the flat Somali boat touched ground I was carried in on a chair held aloft in the air. Mr. Harold kindly put me up at the Consulate during the two days I had to wait for final BRITISH SOMALILAND 43 preparations, and he gave me much interesting information about Zaila and the SomaH Coast Pro- tectorate as well as all sorts of useful help and advice for my journey. Zaila, unlike Berbera, has not enjoyed the advantage of -a conflagration, and the streets are accordingly as haphazard and irregular as anywhere in the East. The fire, however, was only very narrowly avoided not long ago, when several ZAILA. THE MARKET SQUARE. {Photograph by Captain Powell-Cotton.) hundred Abyssinians passed through on a mission to delimitate the Italian frontier. One of them beguiled the interval of waiting by drenching a cat with petroleum, setting light to him and letting him run full tilt into the town in his panic. Mr. Harold naturally protested against this barbarity. He was at first met by a blank denial, but when he produced proofs there was much blustering of indignation, and 44 ABYSSINIA the chief of the Abyssinians volunteered to have the offender's arm chopped off. Details of administration in a distant African protectorate may not sound very exciting at the first blush, but these are moments of patriotism, and I feel confident that every one of my readers will thrill with pride over the wonderful work which is being carried A STREET IN ZAILA. on among barbarous tribesmen by a mere handful, less than a handful, of our countrymen. The marvel will be best laid bare by a comparison of British Somaliland with the pitiful little colony which dignifies itself with the name of French Somaliland. This consists nominally of some 5,000 square miles, but there is no effective dominion for more than a mile or BRITISH SOMALILAND 47 two inland. Yet. it affords occupation for a whole army of greedy French officials — governors, prefects, judges, soldiers, customs' men, with all their deputies and subordinates — and it costs the home Govern- ment no less than 400,000 francs a year. We, on the other hand, exercise a very real and efficient rule over a country which is 75 by 80 by 80 by 160 miles in extent, and has two large towns, the smaller with a population of 10,000 souls. All this is adminis- tered by four Englishmen, and is quite self-supporting, the whole expenses being defrayed without a penny- worth of help from the British exchequer. Until a few years ago the Somali Protectorate was under the Indian Government, being ruled from Aden, which is ruled from Bombay. Then, for some reason which I have not been able to appreciate, the jurisdiction was transferred to the Foreio^n Office, which seems not to take due interest and pride in its acquisition. The change, however, has not affected the administration, except to alter the titles of the officials. The Political Resident at Berbera is now styled Consul-General, and his deputy at Zaila has become a Consul — an utterly misleading nomenclature in either case. They are really the very efficient governors of an excellent colony, and would probably find more suitable appre- ciation at the hands of the Colonial Office. The efficiency of the administration may be gauged by the fact that it has now been found safe to with- draw the small garrison of Bombay Infantry which were quartered on the Somali coast. They left for good and all on the 5th of March, and the whole 48 ABYSSINIA district is now protected by a force nominally con- sisting of 30 Soudanese and 52 Somali police, actually some 10 short of that number at the present moment. The Somalis are taking very kindly to their con- stabulary work, and display much military promise. This is of course due to the infinite pains and splendid ability which have been devoted to their training, and it is safe to say that neither the French nor any other nation could have accomplished similar work. It is amusing to hear the Somalis at drill, giving their words of command (the only English they know) in a strange, broken accent, which suggests a phonograph gone wrong. But they must not be laughed at, for they are evidently very proud of their service. That so large a tract of country can be governed so cheaply, so simply, and at the same time so efficiently, speaks volumes, as Mr. Harold, our Consul at Zaila, never tires of telling me, for the good qualities of the Somalis. It speaks volumes also, as he is too modest to remark, for the judgment and ability of their administrators. The postal administration may seem a small matter, but it deserves mention as a successful detail. Indeed, to me it was by no means a detail, for the monotony of my journey was largely relieved by the regular receipt of my mails. A postman on a fast riding-camel sets out every week from Zaila and Harrar, covering the distance of nearly 200 miles between those places in three and a half days. The service is perfectly safe and regular, and contrasts strikingly with the French post between Jibuti and Harrar, which issues fanciful stamps and voluminous BRITISH SOMALILAXD 49 rules but is so irregular that even the French Minister to Abyssinia prefers to avail himself of our superior arrano;ements. Doubtless also he dreads the in- quisitiveness of the cabinet noii\ which is part and parcel of all French administration. Acting on his usual principles, Mr. Harold has determined to make the post self-supporting, and as much as 5d. per ZAILA. THE BRITISH POSTMAN. half-ounce has to be paid for a letter to Harrar in addition to the ordinary postage. \\'orse still, several camels died lately, and he was obliged to double his rates the other day. Accordingly I found that I was charged some 26s. for a parcel of three or four monthly magazines. This seemed rather stiff at the first blush, but the arrival of a mail is so very precious E ABYSSINIA in the desert that no one can grudge his quota, and I was bound to reflect that if I had had to organise my own relays of messengers I should have had to pay a far prettier penny. Perhaps the most striking fact about the triumph of our organisation is the perfect security which has been established without bloodshed or terrorism in British Somaliland. In another chapter I shall describe the strange barbaric pride which your Somali takes in the killing of men. To check such an instinct and render a caravan route throuofh the desert safe as Piccadilly, may warrant much boasting. Two instances will suffice to exhibit the security of property which has been established. Not loner aero two men o o sufficed to escort a sum of 60.000 silver dollars down to the coast without molestation, though the whole countryside must have known the nature of their burthen. Only once within recent years has there been a complaint of serious robbery, and though that took place outside British jurisdiction, the sequel proved most satisfactory to British prestige. A certain Russian complained that he had been robbed of a thousand dollars (say ^100), which he had care- lessly left under the flap of his tent while camping at Bia Kaboba. Xow that place is not in our territory, but the Russian innuendo, that the money had dis- appeared when a British postman was passing, put Mr. Harold on his mettle. He began by pointing out that on the day in question the postmen must have been several davs' marches awav, and he mio-ht have rested content with this alibi. But his orood- BRITISH SOMALILAND 51 nature and his belief in his organisation impelled him to recover the money. He applied to the tribes, not for the surrender, but for the discovery of the culprit, with whom they should be left to deal according- to their own customs ; for it is a point of pride with them to detect and punish crime, but not to deliver over a criminal to the stranger's hand. The chiefs took the matter up at once, and were not long in tracing the crime to two discharged Somalis. One had his share of 500 dollars still upon him, and was made to give it up at once. He had changed part of it into camels, but no matter, it could be changed back again. The other had buried his in small sums all over the desert, but stoutly maintained his ignorance of the w^hole affair. So the chiefs tied him up to a tree and sat down to wait. Time is not money in the desert, so they waited many days, giving the man just enough, food to keep body and soul together. After about a week he consented to indicate the locality of part of his hoard. He was taken to the place and made to dig it up. Then he was tied to another tree, and the chiefs again awaited his pleasure. In process of time he revealed all his hiding-places, save one where his marks had been destroyed by the elements. It was a labour of infinite patience, and the chiefs had to wait long intervals and traverse long distances between each revelation, but in the end they contrived to return all the money save eleven dollars, and it was satisfactory to find that they expected no reward for all their trouble. The honour of their tribe had been cleared, and that was sufficient reward for them. Mr. 52 ABYSSINIA Harold is probably right in saying that in no other country on earth could money have been recovered in this way, and the incident is very characteristic of Somali justice. A visit to the Court House at Zaila also affords an instructive picture of the Somali character, and helps to explain the causes of the success of our colonial empire. A Frenchman (to take the extreme contrast) attempts to govern natives according to European methods, and the only result is to irritate and perplex them. An Englishman adapts his code to the better side of native tradition ; his subjects find that he treats them firmly and honourably, yet at the same time in a way which their hereditary instincts teach them to consider reasonable. The thing requires the patience of many saints, but this patience is amply rewarded. Coming into the Court House any morning, you find surging crowds of natives — -men, women, and children — all w^aiting to enjoy a field-day at the expense of the English Governor. Every Somali is a born litigant, and as there are no costs under the British Protectorate, he seizes every possible pretext to come into court. Where else in the world could you find such an institution as free justice ? Where else would it not be dismissed as an hopelessly Utopian chimerical idea ? Mr. Harold takes his seat upon the Bench, and the first case is called on. With so many litigants waiting to be heard, it is natural that he should wish to arrive at summary settlements. But who shall presume to try to hustle the East ? A Somali, above all others. BRITISH SOMALILAND 53 may not be hurried, for he is convinced that you can- not possibly understand him unless he repeats himself at least a dozen times. Here is a typical case. An old woman steps forward and says laconically, I want " Then she pauses to see if she has really been heard, and she looks round the court to air her vanity. Mr. Harold [suave l)^ : " Well, what do you want ? " Old Woman {emphatically^ : "I want " Mr. Harold [pleadingly') : " Yes, what is it you want " Old Wo^L\N (as though addressing a very stnpid person) : "I want " Mr. Harold [resignedlyi) : "I am waiting to hear what you want." Old Woman [moitotononsly) : "I w^ant -" Mr. Harold : Well?" Old Woman \ \ want " Mr. Harold : ? ? ? ? " Old Woman : " I want justice." Mr. Harold : " Tell me your grievance as quickly as you can. There are many others w^aiting." Old Woman [stolidly) : " I want justice." This phrase she repeats at least six times, and then at last, with infinite circumlocution, she proceeds to tell her tale. Old Woman [several times) : "I was sitting under a tree in the desert." Mr. Harold : " You have said that before. Tell me what happened." Old Woman [several times more, with satisfied 54 ABYSSINIA pauses in behueeii) : ''I was sitting under a tree in the desert." Mr. Harold [at last) : "If you don't proceed I shall have to call the next case." Old Woman [several times) : ''It was a very large tree. This is followed by all sorts of irrelevant details, each extracted very laboriously and repeated so often that even the Sonialis begin to manifest impatience. At last the old woman blurts out suddenly, in the same monotonous tones with w^hich she has related incon- gruous facts about the desert or trees or shade or water, " Some men came and stole all my camels." Now^ we have something to go upon, and in the course of an hour or so we shall extort other salient facts, who carried off the camels, how many there were, and so forth. Presentl}^ Mr. Harold chances to ask, When did all this happen ? " and the old woman answers in the most matter-of-fact way, "About four- teen years ago." Why did she wait all this while to make her com- plaint } Not for a moment is she at a loss for an answer— no Somali ever is. She has had other concerns, she has been travelling about in various parts of the interior, and after all she did not suppose there was any reason for immediate action. Anyhow, she has now come to demand restitution. The defendant is called, admits the facts, and expresses his willingness to restore such camels as may still survive ; but these are not many. The old woman is, however, quite ready for him there. She has at her fingers' BRITISH SOMALILAND 55 ends the whole history and genealogy of all the camels during all the years which have elapsed since she lost them. The white female camel with the black spot on its back has had twelve young, eight of which are still alive ; so many were males and so many were females, and their offspring was such and such a number. The dark brindled camel had so many children, and so many grandchildren : it is all as pat as a chapter in the Old Testament. The defendant retorts with minute accounts of his expenditure upon each and every stolen camel and its children and children's children. The narrative is endless, for if there is one trait more acutely developed in your Somali than his sense of humour, it is his astounding memory. I am told that this is very common among people who cannot read and write, but even so I believe the Somali is un- rivalled. The case is one for a typical Kadi, and Mr. Harold must have recourse to the methods of the Kadi, but somehow or other he contrives to o-ive satis- faction in this and a hundred other equally perplexing cases. Very often the plaintiff and defendant make absolutely contradictory statements, and there seems no possibility of ascertaining which is lying. One of the litigants has been vehemently positive in his cir- cumstantial assertions, until he is suddenly asked if he will swear to his story. " Oh ! no, I will not do that," he replies quite naturally, and the case is given against him. Another time, a man is quite ready to give all the ordinary oaths, but resolutely refuses to swear by the tomb of some particularly holy sheikh. Or again the judge must rely upon some slight indication ; a 56 ABYSSINIA nudg-e or a wink exchanged between witnesses, for instance, may suffice to decide a case. All this is inordinately hard work at the best of times, but in the hot weather it taxes a man's strength almost beyond human endurance. Already in the middle of March this year, the heat, I am told, was terrible. At nio^ht there seemed to be no air — the atmosphere was still, muggy, close, stuffy, as if a tre- mendous storm were instantly imminent, and there was consequently no sleep to be had. After 7 a.m. the sun was so scorching that it became risky for a white man to venture out ; and indoors, with the blinds down, the thermometer stood at 107°. At 5.30 or 6 p.m. a stroll was possible, but by nine the breeze would drop and the terrible night had to be faced once more. The position of Governor of Berbera or Zaila is certainly not one to be envied in the hot w^eather. He has no com- panion but his black servants and the Somalis ; travellers have ceased to pass through, and he will not see another white man until the autumn shall come round again. It is indeed wonderful what an Englishman will endure and accomplish in the execution of his duty, and we may well exclaim that the heroes of the kopjes and the battlefields are not the only heroes among the many who con- tribute, each in his sphere, towards the building up of our empire. The work which Colonel Sadler and Mr. Harold are carrying on at Berbera and Zaila, quietly, unassumingly, and at the same time so successfully, almost reconciles me to the intrusion of civilisation in Africa. BRITISH SOMALILAXD 57 " I dive ! I dive ! " For an hour or so we of the good ship Caledonia had been straining- our eyes to take stock of the strong- hold of Aden. The loner vovas^e was drawino- to a close, and we wxre putting finishing touches to short- lived acquaintances. We became suddenly aware of a small fleet of flat-bottomed boats hovering feverishly around. " I dive ! I dive ! " Ten days unrelieved by incidents had made us sino'ularlv alert, and we hurried to the sides in obedi- ence to this penetrating call. The first impression of Somalis was very far from encouraoinof. We were instinctivelv reminded of Dore's illustrations of the Inferno, for the boats teemed with naked youths, so naked that they wore not even a single hair upon their skinny, jet-black bodies ; and the long bald heads, with popping wall- eyes and long, projecting ears, completed so saturnine an effect that we might be approaching Charon's ferry. I dive ! I dive I " God bless my soul, but they do dive ! Copper coins they scorn, and you may cast into the water anything from slender pice to a big brown penny without evoking more than a contemptuous grin. You might as hopefully throw bread to a dog who performs for no less guerdon than a sweet biscuit. But toss out any silver money, down to a sixpence or even the humble two-anna piece, and in a trice a black devil whistles through the air, shoots into the sea, emerges in no 58 ABYSSINIA time with his trophy, and clamours breathlessly for fresh ordeals : \ dive ! I dive I I dive ! " Sharks abound here, ravening, they also, after their prey, and the spectacle appeals to that instinct which renders dangerous exploits a delight to witness from a safe distance. Some time ago a young diver had his head bitten off. Quite recently another was dragged right under the keel of a ship and only escaped with the loss of his two le^rs, leavina- a thin red line of blood behind him in the sea. One of the little fellows has only one arm, and it is supposed that the sharks have taken the other, so the coins shower thickest around him. But I begin to wonder whether it is not a mistaken kindness. The Somalis certainly improve on closer acquaint- ance. To begin with, they enjo\' a chronic, im- perturbable good-humour ; there is always a cheery grin upon their otherwise satanical countenances. Nor have they the gross, bestial appearance of the ordinary negro, with his thick lips and woolly hair. Save for the deep darkness of their skins and the scantiness of their raiment, they might pass for Europeans of some refinement. It must be a primaeval sense of decency which prompts them to pluck their armpits and scar their backs to eradicate every vestige of down. On the march they devote every spare instant to removing hairs and brushing their glistening teeth. A few do not shave their heads, but wear thick matted hair some six or eio-ht inches long, giving them the appearance of the domestic Turk's head. But if the hair is allowed to grow, it is BRITISH SOMALILAND 59 only on condition that it shall change its colour. From Aden right away into the uttermost parts of the desert you may meet men with a thick grey scab of lime spread all over their scalps. At first you are inclined to mistake it for evidence of some horrible disease. Presently you perceive the effects. Here is a fellow with a maroon mat of hair, yonder struts another be- neath a bleached shock like a bobtailed wig without the bobtail. I vow he wears powder. " No, sah'b," says Abdi laconically, " fat." There may be fat, but I still believe lime is the principal ingredient. A few hasty facts, to be skipped by those who are less serious than myself. The Somalis occupy the north-east corner of Africa, say from Bab-el- Mandeb, the oate of the Red Sea, to the vao^ue regions below Cape Guardafui. No one knows where they came from, the best guess being from an Arab stock, though the Somali language differs essentially from Arabic. Somalis come to Aden, but only to acquire wealth and wives and experience. Directly they have found all they want they return to their own grey land. In this and in so many other respects they have struck me as the Irish of Africa. They are always on the grin, they possess an enormous sense of humour and a very lively imagination, they are extraordinarily considerate and obliging, in fact they will never stick at any lie provided it will please you for the moment. Ask them a distance when you are tired and they will always halve it ; find them out and grow cross presently and they are sure to be ready with a merry quip or soothing sympathy. I 6o ABYSSINIA believe the Blarney stone must originally have come from some waterless desert in the direction of Ogaden. No one can help liking the Somalis, yet no one can close both eyes to their shortcomings. They are garrulous humbugs and windbags. They have no manners, they make rude noises with their mouths, they laugh in a way that makes you long to kick them, yet you never can be angry with them long. Gratitude is unknown to them ; the word thanks does not exist in their language. They are insatiably greedy of money, yet at the same time reckless spend- thrifts. They possess the unusual combination of vanity and pride. A coloured blazer with bright buttons makes a peacock of the best, yet he never loses his dignity. Nowhere have I met any human beings so sensitive to blame or sneer. Theirs is a very high-strung nature. They are hopeless cowards about facinor a remote danorer. See how thev run across a desert where rumour points to possible ambuscades ! Yet on a sudden emergency they will display plenty of spirit. Like the Irish, they are always spoiling for a fight ; in lieu of shillelaghs they always carry their spears. I am sure they could never found a Somali state. They are too volatile and irresponsible. But they are intensely amenable to strict discipline, and a Parnell or a Mahdi could do what he pleased with them. They have certainly made excellent soldiers whenever the experiment has been tried, and I am told that at Aden they have proved superlative detectives. This I can well believe, for I observed that craft BRITISH SOMALILAND 6i and curiosity were highly developed in their character. They are naturally lazy, and at home make their women do most of the work, yet for an object they will rarely spare themselves. At Aden they work very hard, and put up with a great deal until they have acquired enough fortune to secure them power and influence in their own country. What they covet most of all is to be taken into Africa by an European traveller. They enjoy the journey through Somaliland, particularly if they are among their own tribesmen, but they detest the cold and wet, the racial and religious animosity, the gloom and the hardships which confront them in Abyssinia. Yet they reflect that they have no temptation or oppor- tunity to spend money, and that when they return they will be possessors of a fine little nest-egg, which must raise their social status considerably. On the march their one idea is to please you so that you may pay them well and give them good chits " when you return. If you are easy-going, they will take every advantage ; if you are severe, they will very quickly take the measure of your severity and do just as much work as will keep you satisfied— not a jot more. The worst point about them is their tendency to regard murder as a sport. During my passage through the desert I noticed numerous cairns from time to time. They consisted of a kind of stone altar sur- rounded at a respectful distance by a stone wall, either circular or square. Outside this were a number of upright slabs, like milestones, some of which w^ere surmounted with lumps of quartz. At first I thought 62 ABYSSINIA all this must have some religious significance, but eventually I learned that here were the tombs of Somali braves, each slab recording a murder and the quartz intimating that a man had been killed with his steed. I did not approve of the desecration of the Mahdi's tomb, but I venture to submit that the Government might do well to raze these mausoleums of murder. One day we passed a number of young men, who strutted about as though hugely proud of them- selves. ' They carried spears longer than those of the usual Somalis, their hair projected in thick wig-like mats, and some of them — those, I learned, who had slain many men — -wore feathery tufts on the top of their heads. One of the braves was pointed out to me with pride by the Pilgrim, who remarked, " He kill plenty men." The brave saw he was being noticed and came up to show himself off. He looked very young and wore a very self-conscious smile as he exhibited a horse's tail which was attached to his shield as the trophy of a murder. He also drew my attention to three brass bands on his spear. Three men he killed," the Pilgrim explained cheerfully. " How did he kill them ? In batde ? " " No, no. He kill them any way he can." I noticed that one of the brass bands was double the thickness of the others, so I asked why. He kill that man, very big man, sah'b." I asked how many more men this precocious youngster intended to kill. The question seemed BRITISH SOMALILAND 63 to arouse a good deal of interest, and there was a buzz of expectation before he repHed. His face gleamed with pleasure and conceit, like that of a cricketer going over his batting averages. At last the answer was transmitted : "He hope at least twenty, thirty, sah'b. As many he can." Afterwards I felt a little uncomfortable to reflect that I had shaken hands with a murderer. Chapter IV THROUGH THE LAND OF LIONS Loading Camels — Engaging a Caravan — -The Plunge — Passive Re- sistance— Somali Humour— A Grand Palaver^ — ^The Pilgrim's Progress — The Freedom of the Desert — The Monotony of the March — The Desert Described — Gildessa — A Barbaric Dance — A Pagan Love-rite. I WAS awakened early on the morning of the 6th of December, 1899, by a great hubbub outside the Consulate at Zaila. It sounded as though a free fight were in progress. There were loud war-whoops accompanied by a hoarse rumbling chorus of dis- content. The war-whoops resolved themselves into broad Scots, and I would have wagered that I dis- tinguished importunate outcries of " Whaur air ma boots.'*" ''Whaur air ma breeks " I rubbed my eyes and wondered whether a magical carpet had wafted me to the Kyles of Bute, or whether a High- land regiment had suddenly landed upon the Somali coast. Yet all the yelling was punctuated by that particularly silly noise, which is exclusively associated with the expression of a camel's feelings. I wrapped a sheet around me and made my way out on to the verandah. The sight which I beheld served to warrant the worst alarms. A dense mob of angry blacks — very angry blacks — was howling with rage, 64 THROUGH THE LAND OF IJONS 65 gesticulating, hustling, and even brandishing long spears. W^orst of all, it was my baggage that had provoked all this fury. Certain packages were being scrambled for like oranges, others were being thrown about like cricket balls. But the Mad Mullah had not swooped down upon Zaila. This was only the usual every-day preliminary to the departure of a caravan. The cries which I had mistaken for Scots were merely the favourite Somali w^ord ''Wariya!" (I say, Hallo), with which every sentence invariably opens. As for the spears, a Somali w^ould no more think of walkintr out without them than a German officer of leaving his spurs at home. As for the wrath, it must be remembered that the Irish of Africa are accustomed to express every emotion far more emphatically than they really mean. A w^ord of explanation must now be pardoned. To engage a caravan you bargain with an abane, or contractor. He surveys your chattels and proposes a price per load, by which he means per pair of camels. His favourite chattels are soft bales ; he dislikes hard boxes ; cases of cartridges he positively detests. And these sentiments affect the cost of your journey considerably. You agree upon a price, and then your troubles begin. He w^ill try to make you engage far more camels than you need. He will return again and again with all sorts of extra demands for fees for himself and for extra pay in order to travel extra fast. The camels do not belonor to him but to a number of men, each owning two or three or four. These men go with you ; the abane does not, but F 66 ABYSSINIA he sets over them the richest or most influential. At the best this individual has very litde authority over his fellows, and you must always be prepared to fight your own battles. In doing so you must be very firm, but you must also exercise tact, extraordinary tact, for your Somali has all the pride of a Highland laird. If you injure his dignity, you may find one fine morning that he has decamped with all his camels. LOADING A CAMEL. (Photograph by CAPTAIN POWELL-COTTOX.) leaving the precise amount of your advance money in IMaria Theresa dollars at your tent door. This would not be disastrous, but it would be a nuisance. You would have to send one of your servants to the coast and wait till fresh camels could arrive. Mean- while you would amuse yourself with shooting. The result of different camels belonoinof to different men is that each man wants to single out the softest THROUGH THE LAND OF LIONS 67 loads. However, after a crreat deal of wranorlinor which amuses a Somali as much as it does an Irish- man, the troubles are composed. You are implored to take four more camels, you compromise with tw^o, the loads are adjusted and the caravan sets out with a great parade of leisurely dignity. The work of loading is rather artistic, or at the least ingenious. First a number of very hairy mats CAMEL-MATS U^J-JJ AS TEMS. {Photograph by Captain Powell-Cotton.) are placed upon the beast's back. Then cross-poles are rudely attached, and to these your luggage is lashed. When camping-time comes the mats and poles are turned into rudimentary tents for the camel- men. ^ To return to the wrangle. It seemed to have no end. I took my tub, I dressed, I broke my fast, still all morn lonof the noise of battle raoed. It never orew 68 ABYSSINIA worse and it never grew better. Whenever I peered out to look, I beheld the same tug- of- war over my boxes, the same angry black faces, the same quivering spears. At last the storm seemed to abate a little, there was merely a ground-swell of irritation, and I found the process of loading had begun. First the mats were swung up, then the poles were placed over them, and as the boxes were affixed the plaint of the camels rose above the protests of the men. For a long time I could not decide what it was that this ridiculous jeremiad recalled. Then all at once I re- membered : it was the operation of gargling magnified an hundredfold. Guggle-guggle-guggle-guggle-guggle- wahrrrrrr ! Such is the impatient camel's speech. The last knot is tied and the beast must arise. Its keeper slaps it on the knee and looks round like a conjuror about to perform a trick. The unwieldy mass surges and shoots itself up into the air. Will it acquiesce, or will it remember proverbial privileges about the last straw ? It is a deliberate beast, and takes some time to make up its mind. Then it either runs amok, tries to rub off its burthen, rolls recklessly in the sand, bolts, clatters tin pans, swings its load beneath its belly, and generally makes a fool of itself ; or else it submits to be tied up in file, still grumbling and grudging, for it can never be satisfied. Those files of camels : they are my liveliest re- collection of the desert, the chief characteristic of a caravan. A string round the nose of each attaches it to the tail of its predecessor, yet it perceives no humiliation, but stalks forward with infinitely majestic THROUGH THE LAND OF LIONS 69 gait, staring superciliously to right and left with head high in air. To watch this hour after hour you would vow that even a pack of wolves in red-hot pursuit could never discompose such sublime equanimity. Yet presently the sudden opening of an umbrella or the swervinor of a mule w^ill set the whole file in a panic. As for the evil faces of the camelmen, they turned out to mean little more than a display of petulance at the outset. Once away, the fellows were always very respectful, but I felt all the time that I must be upon my guard, that they were trying it on. They began to try it on at my first encampment. Scarcely had I finished my meal and lit my cigarette before Abdi introduced a deputation. The camelmen had no food or money for the journey ! I had, how- ever, been warned to expect this demand and refuse it, so I pointed out suavely that I had paid all my dues to the abane at Zaila. Yes, but he had taken every- thing and had made no provision for them. In that case, I replied, some one had better be sent back to bring on provisions after them. If they went well I would give them a sheep when we had crossed the two days' waterless desert, and they should have backshish when I parted from them at Gildessa. If they gave me trouble, they should not have another anna, no, nor so much as the gizzard of a twopenny chicken. They saw that I knew, so they acquiesced at once, and went off vowino- that I was their father and mother. Starting off into the unknown desert was just like 70 ABYSSINIA jumping off a plank into a very cold swimming-bath. I put off the evil moment again and again. I dallied over each mouthful all through my last civilised lunch. I prolonged each puff of my cigar as I lolled for the last time in a really luxurious armchair. By way of cheering me up, Mr. Harold, who has a keen sense of humour, related all sorts of misadven- tures, which had befallen travellers in the waterless desert which I was to enter next day. ''A young Belgian came here not so very long ago full of delight over the prospect of his expedition. He sat just where you are sitting now; I thought he was a bit confident and I told him so, but he was young and would not listen to advice. Well, he started off, just as you are going to do, in the afternoon for Warabot, where the desert begins, ten miles away. He camped there and went on at about three o'clock next morning for Ma'anda, the big hill which stands out as the one landmark half-way across the desert. He plodded straight on for eisfht hours, the sun ofrew hotter and hotter, and directly the camp had been pitched all the men flunof themselves down on the orround and fell asleep. When they awoke in the afternoon they found to their amazement that their master had dis- appeared. At first they could scarcely believe it, and asked each other whether the Jinn had carried him off. They proceeded to search for him in every direction, but there was never a trace to be found any- where. All night they searched and a greater part of next day, though a dust storm arose so blinding that it was impossible to see two yards ahead. At last THROUGH THE LAXD OF LIONS they remembered how Httle water they had with them, and they agreed that they must push on to save their own Hves. As it was, they very nearly failed to reach the other side of the waterless desert at Hensa. Several of them were so much overcome by thirst that they had to lie down gasping in the sand till water could be brouoht to them. Havino^ refreshed themselves and refilled their barrels, they toiled back and made fresh search ; they came and reported to me, and I instituted a regular systematic hunt, but all in vain. The young Belgian had been as completely swallowed up by the desert as he might have been by the sea." " Then you have no idea what happened to him ? " ''Wait a bit. I am comino- to that. Several months later the rainy season arrived and nomadic tribes began to come down to the plains, spreading like a flood over the face of the desert, now no longer water- less. And presently a gruesome discovery was reported to me, I rode out and found under a mimosa shrub a skull and a few bones, a rifle and a few shreds of cloth. This was all that remained of the Belgian. Jackals and hyenas had accounted for everything else. He must have seen some game and imprudently started off after it alone. Still more imprudently, he wore nothing on his head but a cloth cap, and nothing on his back but a thin jersey. He must have had a sunstroke and taken refuge under the nearest shrub. No help came, and presently he died. No help could come in time, for he had wandered at least five miles from his camp. That, I am convinced, is the only possible explanation. 72 ABYSSINIA If he had been attacked by Somalis, they would certainly not have left his rifle." " But do Somalis ever attack people? " There was a curious twinkle in the Consul's eye. As I have already stated, he has a keen sense of humour. "They will not attack a caravan," he replied, as if making a reluctant concession, " but it is con- sidered an exploit among them to kill a man. It does not matter much what sort of man he may be, though of course the killing of a white man would be regarded as a greater exploit than that of a black. For each man a Somali kills he is entitled to wear one brass ring on his spear. Indeed it need not even be a man. I heard of a Somali spearing a woman in the hope that her unborn child would be a male and thereby entitle him to another brass rino-. There was an unfortunate Indian not lono- aero. He came down with a caravan and got knocked up when he was very near the coast. As the distance remainincr was so small, he bade the others o-q on, and, when he had rested, he plodded forward alone. As he had scarcely an anna to bless himself w^ith, one would imagine that he, if any one, was perfectly safe from attack. But a Somali, seeing a feeble old man trudging through the desert alone, seized the opportunity to run up and spear him. I believe I have got the murderer in gaol now, but I have not been able to bring it home con- clusively to him yet. Some women saw the Indian followed and speared, but they cannot say for certain whether my prisoner was the culprit." The hands of the clock were moving faster than THROUGH THE LAXD OF LIOXS 73 I liked, and it was clear that I must be off if I wished to reach camp in time for dinner. So I took a reluctant leave, mounted my mule, and set out into the unknown. There is a long- brickwork mound or breakwater, sav a foot hioh, marking- the confines of Zaila. I believe it is a drain or aqueduct. Vi)' mule went on with alacrity until he reached this. Then he absolutely refused to stir. I beat, kicked, coaxed, and cursed him all in vain. It was only when the syce and a ''tombov" had luo-o-ed him bv the nose, and the soldier of my escort had prodded him with his gun for about ten minutes that he could be induced to cross the border and embark upon his thousand-mile journey. Mv ears still rano- with the Consul's tales of murder and sunstroke, and I could not but mislike the omen. Still there was a certain charm of novelty to a sedentary civilian in setting forth in semi-military khaki raiment, helmet, puttee leggings, belts bristling with cartridges, surrounded by armed men ; almost a centurion with absolute authority in the free realm of the desert. What an experience ! what fun ! We proceeded at a slow, dignified pace over very flat country, like the seashore at low tide only harder, here and there were sparkling white incrustations suggestive of salt crystals ; through this was a broad beaten track. Beaten indeed I There were thousands and thousands of hoof-marks faintly impressed on the surface ; forty centuries looked up at me from this road where caravan had followed caravan throuohout untold ages. ?^Iiniature crevasses yawned across my 74 ABYSSINIA path. I began to find myself among stunted shrubs which bristled with prickles. We passed a camel in difficulties. The soldier and tent-boy went off to assist it, and the syce promptly led me off in the wrong direction where two tracks forked. I shouted for the others, the syce shouted, we both shouted, but all in vain. The camel seemed too interesting to be left. My mule grew impatient and began spinning round and round like a cockroach on a pin. This first short march seemed very long, though it was full of surprises. I shall never forget the weird impressions of sunset in the shadowless desert. Twi- light lasted nearly three-quarters of an hour, in sur- prising violation of all accepted theories of the tropics. Then I espied a very new moon, the thinnest little silver curl imaginable ; I raised my helmet and turned my money in acknowledgment of the omen. I came among lights and trees, full of fantastic effects, every one of them a reminiscence of a fairy tale. Stately blacks kept strutting out into the open and challenging with shields in their hands like the outposts of an army. But where were the expected lights of my camp ? Abdi, my butler, suddenly emerged from the darkness, and lo ! I was in the midst of my caravan. The camels sat about with necks erect, staring straight in front of them like sphinxes, and chewing the cud in meditative dignity. Boxes, baskets, and bales were scattered about higgledy-piggledy on every hand. Nothing had been unpacked, there were no lamps, no fires, no sign of a tent or table. I protested with energy, only to learn that I had all the keys in THROUGH THE LAND OF LIONS 75 my own pockets, and that the camel which I had passed by the roadside carried my bed and tent. Much groping and consulting of lists ensued before I knew in which of my forty-six packages the lanterns, matches, and needful provisions were concealed. It was not an encouraging outset, but I pressed every one into the bustle, despatched assistance to the missing camel, and soon plumed myself upon the magical evolution of order out of chaos by one w^hite man. Fires came into being, the cook began to cook, the camel turned up, and I was soon washing my face at a camp table outside my tent. Quite a good dinner was created over a furze fire and three small stones. Here is the menu of my first repast in the jungle : — Consomme de poulet froid (essence of chicken). Cotelettes de mouton. Pommes soufflees. Poulet saute. Omelette sucree. Pains de gingembre (gingerbread nuts). Dessert. Cafe. A feeling of contentment crept over me among these novel surroundings. It is true that thousands of moths and other fat insects came to die beside my lamps, but the soothing warm air was heavy laden with subtle scents, there was a blaze of stars overhead, all sorts of ghostly figures flitted about in the firelight, and the roar of millions of crickets all round me was 76 ABYSSIXIA accompanied by a variety of musical murmurs. What novelty, what poetry, what fun ! As I lay clown for the first time on a camp bed, with the winds of the wilderness blowino^ throui^h a tent, and marked the tramp of my sentinel outside, or caught the gleam of his rifle in the starlight, or heard the grumbles of slumbering camels all round me, I fell a-wondering what the desert would have in store for me on the morrow. Verily had I plunged thousands and thousands of miles through space during the day or so which separated me from the club and dinners and dances and picnics and prize-fights of the Garden of Aden. Before I left Aden I asked a friend whether he thought I should hold my own with my caravan or become, like Ham the accursed, a servant of servants. He replied with an indulgent smile, I think that they will wear you down with passive resistance." And that is precisely what did happen. After cross- ing the waterless desert between Warabot and Hensa, 1 was asked if I would mind having only an afternoon march on the morrow as the camels needed water. However, the return for this indulgence, really quite as much an indulgence to me as it was to the camels, did not encourage further kindness. After a lazy lunch and an exquisite siesta, I woke up to find the camp still slumbering. I hallooed for Abdi and told him he might pack up my green tent when he liked. He affected much astonishment and exclaimed, " But we are not ooino- on till to-morrow mornino- ! " I replied that I had conceded a great favour in con- THROUGH THE LAND OF LIONS 77 sentino- to rest all the mornincr. He went off to consult the head camelman, whom I could hear pro- testing in querulous besotted tones begotten of too much mutton. Presently I was informed that the camels had all been sent off to feed far away. They could not be collected before five, or more probably six. I replied that I was resolved to start that after- noon at all hazards, even though I had to travel all through the night. The headman must send out at once for the camels. I would stand no nonsense. Abdi went off, and I heard a mixture of loud com- plaints and drowsy, squeaky arguments. At last he returned and said he had prevailed : the camels had been sent for. By three o'clock they began to be brought in, but I was informed that one camel had strayed and it would be necessary to wait till next morninor to find it. I said that even thouo-h all the camels were lost 1 would still go on. A couple of men might remain and search, and the missing camel should carry my water-barrels, which would not be needed for some days. The headman did not like this, but he accepted my orders, and I saw two men sally forth with spears to search for the truant. Then further aro^uments be^an. It would not do to leave the barrels as there was no water at the next stao^e. I consulted my notebook and replied, " I know there is water at Las Ma'an ! " " W'Allah ! we cannot possibly reach Las Ma'an to-dav. It would be midnio-ht before we were there." Nonsense, I know the distance is only thirteen miles. If the camels start now, they will be there /8 ABYSSINIA soon after nine! In any case it is pleasant travelling bv nicrht." "You are my father and mother. If you order me, I go ; but one camel is lost, the others are far away. ..." And so forth. At 3.50 I was informed that the lost camel had been found. I remarked that I thought it would be, and there were some smiles. Of course I did not get my way about the long march, but on the morrow we managed a little better, and in the evening I ordered tea all round to en- courage everybody. They grew quite hilarious over their cups, and I heard one man making a vehement speech, which was punctuated with roars of laughter. I asked Abdi to divert me with a translation of the buffoonery, which proved to savour somewhat of that ''new humour," which is no humour at all. It was little more than a long rigmarole about small catas- trophies, such as happen to "three men in a boat." " \\'hy does my camel always start last .-^ " quoth the wag. " It really isn't fair. He doesn't like it at all, with his sense of dignity. That is why he bit Nadif's camel on the way and Nadif's camel revenged himself by damaging the sah'b's tin basin. Now what will befall us if the sah'b needs that basin ? W Allah ! he will send it back to Zaila to show how badly our camels have behaved. Then will the Burra Sah'b at Zaila send for us and beat us with many sticks." And so forth by the hour. At last I interrupted all this by inquiring about the morrow's march. It was as though I had thrown a THROUGH THE LAND OF LIONS 79 bucketful of water into the group. The headman and half a dozen others jumped up as if they had been shot, they formed a knot, and all began to gesticulate and talk at once. At last a quiet message emerged from the tumult : "I was their father and mother, and would I please be so very kind as to make to-morrow's march as short as possible?" This was Sunday night, but it was not till Tuesday afternoon that passive resistance really became serious again. I had ordered the evening camp to be pitched at a lovely oasis called Bia Kaboba and I let the caravan go far ahead, as I hoped, while I stalked bustards and oryx. What, then, was my disgust to come upon my encampment at nightfall at a rocky, God-forsaken place called Maramaduis, ^several hours short of Bia Kaboba. The peculiar vexation lay in the fact that the head- man had proposed Maramaduis as our camp and I had sternly refused. As I was preparing to go to bed I heard the camelmen laughing over their success, so I sent word at once that I intended to reach Dalle Malle next day. This was twenty-seven miles off and would mean making up for all the lost time. The laughter ceased abruptly. But by this time I had begun to gauge the force of passive resistance. And lo ! next morning my worst fear was verified. I packed off the caravan quite early without any particular trouble. I had a brush with a lioness on entering the groves of Bia Kaboba, but I hurried on, reflecting over the long march which lay before me. Then of a sudden I espied some camels, some cases, some tents, all suspiciously like mine. It was not 8o ABYSSINIA nine in the morning. Yet here were the camp pitched, the men lounging about, fetching water or preparing to cook, the camels let loose to graze — in fact every prospect of a prolonged stay. This was flagrant disobedience at last, and my fury moved me to bestir myself I sent for the headman and rated him soundly, insisting that the camels should be reloaded and the march resumed at once. He acquiesced sullenly, and I sat down under a tree while his sub- ordinates were being collected. Presently nine men approached me with their spears and staves for a grand palaver of remonstrance. Eight of them squatted on their haunches w^hile their spokesman stood up and embarked upon an im- passioned harangue. He held a long wand in his hand and kept pointing it at me in dramatic denun- ciation at the end of every period, but one of the others nudoed him, as thoucjh to sav this was not o^ood form, w^hereupon he threw it down viciously at my feet. The speech may have been very impressive, but Abdi was away at the wells and I did not understand a word. So I held up my hand and said, " Shut up ! " which the orator's instinct seemed to interpret for him. At last Abdi returned, and I was able to have it out. Spokesman : Our camels hunger and thirst, and two days of desert lie before us." I : " Well, whose fault is that ? I wanted to get here last night." Spokesman : " But here w^e are amid springs and pastures. Our camels cannot go forward unless they first fortify themselves. We pray you let us tarry here THROUGH THE LAND OF LIONS 8i awhile. Then we will go on to the place you name, even though we must travel all through the night." I : " But why does this man palaver with me ? The headman is responsible. Let us hear what he has to say." The headman, who was standing at the edge of the semicircle, now said, Sir, we know you are a big man, and he who sent us with you is also a big m.an." A PALAVER OF CAMELMKN. {Photograph by CAPTAIN POWELL-COTTOX. I : "All the more reason that you should obey my orders." This seemed unanswerable, and there was a murmur as who should say I had scored, for the Somalis can appreciate a joke even against themselves. I went on : " Why did you only start at five when I told you to start very early for this long march ? " Headman : " Sir, it was very cold in the night." G 82 ABYSSINIA I was about to protest when three shots were suddenly fired a yard behind me. I looked round angrily to find three grinning Somalis drawn up to attention. They were the Abyssinian guard, who had just fired a salute into the air, and I was told that it was customary to give them a present. Havino- satisfied them with some o'ame and rice and loincloths, I returned to my palaver. If I conceded a rest now, when would they be ready to start ? They replied : "At the same time as yesterday — 3 p.m. I suggested eleven, and finally we compromised for twelve. In the evenincr, and aorain next dav, passive resistance resumed its sway. There were alwavs excuses galore : the camels were tired and tried to lie down by the roadside, so the men had to camp too soon ; or else the camels were tired or had strayed, and it was impossible to start early. I always obtained something by my protests, but, short of a fight, I never could have obtained all the speed I wanted. However, it is always difficult to be really angry with so cheerful and good-humoured a rascal as a Somali. He is so delightfully simple too, even in his flattery. In discussinof the next dav's route I was alwavs regarded as a kind of wizard, because I not only knew the names and distances, but even where there would be water, and what would be the state of the road. I would hear loud murmurs of astonishment. " Well, what is it ? " I would say to Abdi. " They say," he would reply. " how do you know How can you know ? " THROUGH THE LAND OF LIONS 83 " The Afrits told me." And a long ripple of " W'Allah " would go round the crowd. Now to describe the sensations of a caravan journey so that every reader may experience them. This has never been done, perhaps never will be. The keynote is monotony. You wake in the dark THE DETARTURE OF MV DECK-CHAIR. and speed your departing camels while your night things are being packed and your breakfast is being prepared. Off they go in their long, slow, majestic file, followed at intervals by various stragglers carrying a chair, or a pail, or a sackful of odds and ends slung over their shoulders. The first of your personal servants to start is the cook. I can laugh still over 84 ABYSSINIA the recollection of Reggel on the march. Picture a man in a blue coat with a broad white band, a red and yellow striped kilt — above these a round, bald head with long, projecting ears, and below a pair of very spindly black shanks. Round his neck is a bit of rope from which he has suspended the big rusty key of his provision box, like a medallion. In one hand is an unlighted lantern, in the other a cumbrous basket, and it takes him all his time to drive my small flock of sheep : ridiculous beasts with white bodies and black heads, bloated bags at their throats and laughable stumpy tails where they store their surplus fat. Between five and six I announce that I am off. My syce holds the stirrup in true feudal fashion for me to mount my mule, other retainers shoulder my guns (if possible so that they may point straight at me), there is a last lingering look round to see if anything has been left behind, and the day's treadmill begins. The delights of vagabondage have certainly been exaggerated. People who talk romantically about the freedom of the desert forget its limitations. They might just as well extol the freedom of a man in a small boat at sea — but how is he going to make use of it ? The whole thing might be regarded as an amusing picnic by a congenial party, though the opportunities of quarrel would be enormous. If only to vary the monotony, an occasional row would be indispensable. Joseph certainly knew the con- ditions of this kind of travel, when he begged his brethren to see that they fell not out by the way. Of course there are compensations in travelling alone. THROUGH THE LAND OF LIONS 85 You have nobody's wishes or fancies to consider but your own, and it is good for you to have to rely on yourself. But after a week you feel as though you would like to scream aloud for companionship, you yearn for the sight of a white face, you would almost give away your tongue for a chat with an Englishman. When you have met a rare traveller, you are set up in good-humour for hours or days, even though he be only a Frenchman, or German, or Greek. Oh ! the monotony of the road between Zaila and Gildessa. On the map you see a fine string of names, and you anticipate that each represents a strange barbarous village, where you will be able to observe the antediluvian customs of an old-world race. Not a bit of it : saving one or two poor huts for the military posts, and these at long intervals, there is not a trace of human habitation all the way. At the best you meet an occasional shepherd or an occasional caravan. All the high-sounding names represent only so many wells or hills or other camping-places, some- times even a mere solitary tree standing alone like a sentinel in the desert. So all day long you plod, plod, plod forward, now^ struggling and kicking and beating in the vain hope of making your mule go a jot faster than he chooses, now getting off and trudging it afoot, nor minding the cruel boulders if only you may cover the tedious ground a wee bit faster. You plod, plod, plod, all day with nothing to think of but the miles and minutes of your march ; the same surroundings repeat themselves so pitilessly that you soon know them all by heart and abandon hope of discovering a new 86 ABYSSINIA aspect or a new sensation. It is indeed a pilgrim's progress, as dull and unconvincing as Bunyan's. I have now been describing the instant impressions. When I reached Harrar, these were so strong upon me that I fervently hoped Menelik would refuse me permission to proceed any further ; and a great dread came over me with the reflection that I must go over all this intolerable country again before I could return to the coast. Yet now that I have returned I can look back upon the experience with indulgence, and even congratulate myself upon having gone through it. Apart from the incredible benefits to my health and strength, I find an interest in the sum total of incidents and impressions which, taken separately, bored me incredibly. Sometimes I almost fancy I should like to go again, and I never desist from recommending all my friends to set out. After all, the appreciation of desert travel is entirely a matter of temperament. Perhaps the chief drawback of the journey through Somaliland is that you may not inure yourself gradually. You must plunge at once into the hardest and dreariest tract of country, into blinding glare, choking dust, and stifling heat. I had scarcely realised this kind of desert before. I imagined all deserts were great wastes of soft yellow sand, such as I had seen at Gabes and Tripoli. I had forgotten that, though deserts may be but the dry beds of exhausted oceans, a seashore is as likely to be covered with pebbles as with sand. In Somali- land the pebbles predominate and grow^ up into boulders, which are the rockery of a strange withered THROUGH THE LAXD OF LIONS 87 garden. There are parched aloes and shrivelled mhnosas, all sorts of orraceful shrubs, which on closer acquaintance prove so much crumbling match- wood. The arrangement is exquisite, surpassing even the horticulture of Hampton Court or Monte Carlo, but you are in a pleasure garden of the dead, which bears no close inspection. It is an ugly glutinous vegetation, all stunted, all parading its inhospitality by exaggerated armaments of huge thorns and clustering prickles. The white berries are like parched peas, and a rare tulip-tree of sorts bears bier orrev oranges, which contain nothincr but 00. 0 «-5 woolly fibres, cobwebby gristles, a veritable Dead Sea fruit. The onlv redeemino- feature is the intoxicatino^ scent, recalling a quintessence of clover and heather, with which it loads the air. Without exaggeration, you come to reek of it in every rag and every pore as surelv as vou reek of other odours after travellinof in a third-class smoker of the Underground. This incense of the desert and the o'revness of the desert — - these are my two liveliest recollections. The greyness of the desert : you are in a sea of grey. The fierce sun beats clown upon you from a blue-grey sky ; as you pass, grey shrubs nod at you in apoplectic grimness, and livid grey lizards shiver away over the grey sand ; grey jackals eye you suspiciously from behind huo-e erev ant-hills ; o-rev bones and skulls strew the beaten track in every stage of decomposition. It is only when the bright moon rises and sheds sepulchral shadows on every hand, that all is trans- figured with a haze of frosted silver. Between the 88 ABYSSINIA intervals of desert are stretches of semi-desert, where the boulders are not rendered more tolerable by the intrusion of hills, though a certain variety is imported by the fantastic outlines of purple ranges and brown mountains shaped like tents and tabernacles, or by the graceful pose of umbrella-shaped trees. Such are your unvarying surroundings during nine or ten days, all the way to Gildessa. You plod along from cock-crow until the heat is unbearable, when you pitch your tent or seek the shelter of a tree. Your cook collects three stones, kindles a fire as though by magic, and soon prepares a tempting meal. You make up arrears of slumber until it is cool enough to set out after your camels for the evening camp. The afternoon march is the counterpart of the fore- noon's, and you have again no other goal but food and sleep. Even at night you have no peace. The Somalis who have run all day beside your mule, whose hours of rest have been taxed by ministrations to your comfort, never show signs of fatigue. Instead of curling themselves up in their blankets and securing every available moment for a hard-earned sleep, they now redouble the chatter and the raucous sonors with which they have beguiled their run. Sometimes I wished that they could curb their spirits, but I had not the heart to check them, and I reflected that, though my slumbers might suffer, my sense of security was enhanced. The only nocturnal habit I drew the line at was a tent-boy coming to snore under the flap of my tent, an inch or so away from my nose. The culprit would behave just like a dog about it. I would THROUGH THE LAND OF LIONS 89 bang him with my hand through the canvas. He would wake up reluctandy, go away, and presendy return to snore again. This would be repeated two or three times, my blow^s and remonstrances growing ever more viororous. Then at last I would needs shout for Abdi, who seemed ever on the alert. Wariya ! Wariya ! " and my tormentor would be hurried off, APPROACHING GILDESSA. leaving me to pass the rest of the night in peace, unless perchance a camel came lurching against the tent, or my mule took to stumbling among the ropes, or a sudden thunderstorm threatened to wash me away. For nine days I had plodded wearily over grey deserts and rocky ravines, gnashing my teeth for 90 ABYSSINIA very loneliness, sometimes even breaking out into a tuneless chaunt to exercise mv luno-s. How mv spirits rose as I approached the little township of Gildessa ! Here at last were plenty of green trees, and a market, and unsophisticated peasants. I had accomplished one stage in my long journey ; I should be rid of mv tiresome camels and camelmen, in whose THE TORRENT-BED OF GILDESSA place Others would convey me over the mountains to Harrar. The only drawback was that Gildessa possesses an evil reputation for fever, which some people declare is quite unwarranted. There are cer- tainly no marshes or swamps, but the little town stands close to a broad, dry torrent-bed, where all sorts of oarbaoe and refuse are offered for the delectation of WOMEN SELLING FUEL AT GILDESSA. THROUGH THE LAND OF LIONS 93 the hyenas and vultures. I was according-ly advised to pitch my camp a couple of hundred yards away from the town under the grateful shade of the nullah. What, then, was my disgust on arriving, to find that my direct orders had been ignored by the camelmen, and that all my boxes had been dumped down at the edsfe of the torrent-bed. I remonstrated heartilv and insisted that they should be removed at once. But the camels had all wandered off to graze, most of the camelmen had gone off to fraternise with their friends in the town, and the few who remained replied curtly that "every sah'b he camp here." So my own servants had to run about and collect the camels while I exercised my lungs and my legs and kept a watchful eye upon the numerous loafers who had con- gregated to gape at the white man. Most officious amongst them was a very old madman, who strutted about brandishincr a huoe scimitar, which he had drawn from a silver scabbard at his side. I had hardly crossed the torrent-bed, and was still in the midst of my altercation about the camping-place, when he advanced towards me, saluted pompously, and held out his hand. Imao-ininof he was some official, I shook hands and inquired what he wanted. Abdi replied that the fellow was a mad beggar, but that travellers generally gave him something, as madmen are considered more or less saintly by Muhammadans. This is the kind of stuff which produces the various Mahdis, Mullahs, and other fanatics who stir up sedition in Africa. I remember a similar individual who used to strut about the 94 ABYSSINIA public square at Tangier and spit at every European or Jew who passed. The man with the scimitar was an incessant nuisance throughout the two days which I spent at Gildessa. Bribing him to go away only made him the more attentive, and when I threatened him with my stick, I was advised to beware of outraging public opinion by striking a saint. In the midst of this annoyance I received a curt messaore that the Governor of Gildessa expected all travellers to come and report them- selves at the custom-house. 1 replied that, if he wished to see me, he might pay me a visit at my camp. At last I got my way, my tents were pitched in a patch of delicious shade, and kindly peasants THROUGH THE LAND OF LIONS 95 arrived with offerings of milk and eggs. Duly refreshed, I strolled across to view the town. It consists for the most part of round huts, like summer-houses, made of bamboo and wattling with thatched roofs. These are known as tukuls, and ABYSSINIAN WOMEN SERVANTS POUNDING RED PEPPER. {Photograt'h by Captain Harrington'.) generally have some kind of courtyard outside with more or less of a palisade. Here women are at work, oftenest pounding pepper with a huge wooden pestle, nearly as tall as themselves, in a mortar shaped like a jack-boot. The process has the appearance of churning. The bazaar was thronged with loungers, 96 ABYSSINIA though there seemed extremely little to buy. A number of asses stood for sale or hire on the top of a hill, and others were congregated in a courtyard, which recalled the fonduk of Arab lands. Women crouched under umbrella-tents, presiding over basket- work pannikins of snuff, grain, chillies, or occasionally a few hanclfuls of gums. Nearly every woman wore several necklaces of glass beads, and the better-to-do had silver cartwheel earrinos. The maidens wore their hair in mops, while the married women tied it up tightly in a black or blue-black cloth. The costume of men and women alike is restricted to a single white garment, a cotton sheet, or tobe, which is wound round the body. The men fold it round them so as to leave an end, which they fling dramatically over their shoulders like a Spaniard's cloak. The women fasten it more securely round their waists, leaving a loose end with which they can cover their shoulders and even their heads if they choose. 1 am speaking, of course, of Somalis, who constitute the large majority of the inhabitants. The Butchers' bazaar was similar to others in Somali- land, only simpler than that I had seen at the coast. An arrangement of clothes-lines formed a rude square, from which loathsome bits of cat's-meat dangled. Up on the top of a steep hill were three or four tukuls, where the Abyssinian authorities dominate the town. I could hear them tootling their bugles at all hours of the day, most loudly of all at sunrise and sunset. After dinner I felt on extremely good terms with myself, and called gaily for a dance. As Abdi went THROUGH THE LAND OF LIONS 97 off to see what he could arrange, I said in chaff, " Don't bring the whole village." " No, sah'b, I no bring that," he laughed. But he had reckoned with- out Somali curiosity, and when the shades of night had fallen upon my encampment, I found that the majority of the inhabitants had come over the broad dry torrent-bed from the village. The dance v/as admirably staged. I was in a deep grove, and the full moon shone splendidly through the trees. I sat outside my tent smoking cigarettes and listening to the hyenas and jackals. Presently there was a hum of barbaric singing in the distance, towards the town of Gildessa. I strained my ears and eyes, until finally I made out a band of ghostly figures flitting forward through the grove, with gleaming spears and martial tramp. As they approached their chaunt seemed to lose its barbarism and put on an ecclesiastical effect. At last I could distinguish the words of the chorale : Salaam Allah ! Salaam Allah ! Salaam Allah ! " (The peace of God be upon thee !). What a prelude to an orgy! A crowd of savages halted a hundred yards off, grounded their spears, and executed a few dance steps to the accompaniment of singing and clapping of hands. Then they advanced a little, halted again, advanced, halted, and finally entered the swept space, which my servants had prepared for the show. " Salaam Allah ! Salaam Allah ! Salaam Allah ! " — the welcome grew deafening. "Where are the women ? " I asked grumpily. They come later." II 98 ABYSSINIA Meanwhile the men certainly exhibited <(reat vigour. Their step began with a kind of crouch ; they beat the earth with their bare feet so that you might imagine hundreds of flails at work, and great clouds of dust arose as they proceeded to pirouette round one another. Their long spears fringed the skyline, ever and anon ball-cartrido-es would be fired into the air. " Salaam Allah ! Salaam Allah ! Salaam Allah ! " — would they never desist from their stormy greeting ? This was only the prelude. The first turn was a cutlass and shield dance. The crowd resolved itself into a restless chorus, while two men advanced into the centre. They seemed in grim, deadly earnest, one seeking to stab the other with his gleaming steel, the other defending himself desperately with his small Somali shield. It was a wonderful exhibition of dex- terity, and none would have believed the dancers could be merely at play. Their eyes were aflame with malice ; surely the lust of slaughter was upon them, yet the man with the cutlass never succeeded in strikino^ anv- thing but the centre of the shield. He pursued, he retreated, he slashed at his foe's head, chest, arms, at every vulnerable point, and every instant I expected to espy a deep red gash. The man with the shield seemed to bear a charmed life. At last the defence began to wane, the shield was plied with less vigour, the defender sank upon one knee, he crouched, he grovelled, he pressed his fingers to his lips, he trembled like an aspen and craved aloud for mercy. Never had I heard such sounds of abject fear. The other made his scimitar whistle through the air, THROUGH THE LAND OF LIONS loi pinned the wretch down to the earth with his left hand, and prepared with a grim grin to sHt his weasand. The victim wTiggled on his belly towards me and made signs of imploring intercession. 1 raised my thumb like a Roman Emperor at a gladiatorial game, and the victor gave up his victory at once. " Salaam Allah ! Salaam Allah ! " The next scene was a perfect pandemonium. It began with a hissing, whisding sound from everybody's throat to imitate the noise of weapons in the air. Then everybody began to rush at everybody else. Clouds of choking dust thickened the air, and the turmoil drew every instant nearer and nearer to me. Steel was swishing over my head, a few inches only over my head, in the moonlight, and masses of brown, surging humanity, stinking with perspiration, were clasping my feet to implore protection against their sham enemies. I had to retire hastily and wash my mouth with whiskey and soda. In any case, there was none of the monotony usually ascribed to savage dances. Indeed the next turn was very far from monotonous. A man was muffled up in a big white burnus so that only his eyes, nose, and the lower part of his legs appeared. He jumped up and down in a woulcl-be effeminate manner and whinnied to simulate shyness. Two men (one of whom was my Arab soldier) placed themselves on either side, their faces oflitteringr with amorous desires. They beat their breasts and murmured Ahhh ! " to denote their passion. Gradually they sidled up nearer and nearer. But the rest is better left imagined than I02 ABYSSINIA described. Fortunately for the performers there is no County Council at Gildessa. Just as the rude merriment was subsiding, I heard a sound on my left like the gallop of cavalry. When I had overcome my surprise, I reflected that perhaps it was onlv a reo^iment of infantrv markino^ time. I strained my eyes and perceived that the noise was caused by some dozen young Somali braves, who were gathered in a semicircle and stamped in unison as though they would beat open the earth. Their hair projected in thick, wig-like mats, and some of them — those, I learned, who had slain many men — wore feathery tufts on the top of their heads. They waved longer spears than the crowd, they shouted louder, altogether there was far more vigour about their dancing. They closed in, forming a circle, facing inwards, stamping, shouting, brandishing their spears and shields — a olorified football scrimmacje. First each seemed to be for forcing his way in at all hazards, then came a curious gazelle-like bound backwards as if for a fresh charge into the scrimmai>"e. This was the most barbaric part of the performance, and the barbarism was heightened by the reflection of what those hair-tufts meant. But the dances were beino- resumed. There were Catherine-wheels, the men dancing with their hands as well as with their feet : some very gracefully, others like boys on the way to the Derby. There were animal dances, accompanied by strange animal noises, a camelman in a brown jerkin being especially expert. Now I was told that the women had arrived, and THROUGH THE LAND OF LIONS I saw a score or so huddlinor together in the distance. The ground was cleared for them, but they refused to come nearer than twenty yards, for Abdi said, "They 'shamed to dance before big mister." After all, this was no great loss, for their timidity prevented them from doing much more than clap their hands and drone a refrain. Two or three men danced towards them in a goat-like w^ay. To and fro they danced for nearly half an hour, chaunting loudly, defiantly, but the women still kept closely huddled, and did nothing- more than clap and drone mechanically. Eventually one or two were prevailed upon to come forward a very little, and a set was formed. Two men and two women danced slowly in a circle, then more quickly towards the centre, then round and round again. It was very long and very tedious ; the same monotonous refrain was repeated incessantly, and I w^as told it was all in praise of the " big mister." When I could endure it no longer, I oave the signal for an end, and all retreated into groups accordins: to sex and a^e and tribe. W^ithin a few minutes the whole hubbub was stilled, and all the revellers were squatting silently in the moonlight, waiting to be paid. A thick cloud of choking dust alone bore evidence of the recent revel. Abdi had promised that the whole village should not be allowed to come, but there must have been at least six hundred persons there waiting to be paid. Abdi suggested a payment to each group, and gallantly insisted upon my giving a double quota to the group of women, who had done so much less than the others. " They very 104 ABYSSINIA much 'shamed, sah'b," he reminded me, but I could discern no reason for their shame. xAs each group was paid it strolled off towards the town, without a word of farewell, affording a contrast to all the salaams, gun-firings, and even handshakes which had accompanied their advent. By the laws of Gildessa every light must be out and every citizen abed by ten, but the laws had evidently been relaxed in my honour, for it was now close on midniofht. Next night I camped at Balawa, the last stage before Harrar ; and after my dinner the whole village turned out as a matter of course. I was for sending the folk away, imagining that their performance would be but a poor repetition of the dance at Gildessa. However they persisted, and I was rewarded for my patience by quite a different and interesting spectacle. When it beean I thought it was "oinof to be the old business over aoain. The usual semicircle was formed for the usual dance by two men, who stamped the ofround with le^rs of iron, and brandished cutlasses as if about to cut throats instantly. Then a couple of small boys went through the same evolutions and acquitted themselves by no means badly, though their tendency was to exaggerate everything. I was for retiring, when the word arrived that the women were about to perform. I remembered the women of Gildessa and was not hopeful, but I waited awhile from courtesy. Mats were spread out, and some four or five women came forward and knelt in a row. They knelt bolt upright and waited. Several minutes THROUGH THE LAND OF LIONS 105 elapsed in silence. Then a number of men came and knelt down, one opposite each woman. Soon the men beofan to erowl and bark like beasts. Gradually the noise grew louder and wilder, the men knelt up and drew closer and closer to the women, yet never came into actual contact. The men swayed their heads and bodies all the while right and left, up and down, and gradually their sharp barks took shape in a long, crooning, rumbling growl, in which declarations of love could presently be distinguished. It was really a horrible sight, and there was a feeling of frenzy in the air. All this growling and swaying had evidently induced a hypnotic state, as they do in the howling dervishes at Constantinople. Their eyes glistened and seemed ready to start out of their heads, all their muscles twitched and shivered with excitement, their hands and lips came within a hair's breadth of those of the women, yet never actually touched. The men began to show signs of exhaustion and sank back upon their heels ever more frequently, till at last they slunk away defeated, giving place to other men, who had also to retire discomfited after awhile. And all the time the women remained kneeling bolt upright, silent and sphinx-like, merely wagging their heads, first down, then right, then left, then up, and so on apparently for ever. Their long mats of hair followed the motions comet-like in the air, and their big silver bracelets afforded a sort of Castanet accompaniment. Save for an occasional io6 ABYSSINIA shiver and something of a hypnotic stare in their large, glistening eyes, they never betrayed a vestige of emotion. Nor did they ever show a trace of fatigue. Men after men gave way and retired, but they remained bolt upright, wagging their heads without a second's intermission, mutely challenging more men to come and kneel before them. I am told that sometimes they will go on like this all night — from six or seven in the evening until dawn — and never tire ; nay, that if there were enough men to last out, they would remain kneeling and nodding until they were turned into stone. This possesses a real interest apart from the mere mystery of the barbaric scene, for it must be a survival of some old Pagan love-rite. Perhaps the strangest part of the symbolism is the fact that the women always come out victors in the strife, and this in a country where women are held in such light esteem. Chapter V ENTERING ABYSSINIA Approaching Harrar — An Ancient and Mysterious Town — Rocky Streets — The Harrari — The Lion Hotel — ^Wild Scavengers — Bazaars — A Paradise for Small Incomes — A Health Resort — Farming — Openings for Labour — Mining — Imperial Attentions — Delays at Harrar— Lake Aramaya — Forests — A Telephone Station — Hawash River — An iVlarm in the Desert — Shoa — A Fairy Ride — Sad Somalis. A VERY few days after leaving the Somali coast, a red and white flaof over a oruard-house informed me that I was in the territory of the Negus. But many long marches had to be passed through Somalis and Gallas and other Muhammadan blacks before I could persuade myself that I had reached Abyssinia. It was very much as though I had set out from the Welsh coast to join Prince Charlie at Derby, and found myself always in a land which belonged to England but yet was not England. If a village seemed a marvel at Gildessa, how incredible it was to reflect that at length I drew near to a town — the only town indeed which I should see during my thousand-mile journey, the only real town, Menelik imout ! ^ to be found within His Majesty's dominions. ' By the death of Menelik ! — I really must begin to swear in Abyssinian. 107 io8 ABYSSINIA By rights this town should still belong to Egypt, and therefore be administered by Britain, but our ministers cannot be expected to reflect upon more than one subject at once, and other nations, who are less absent-minded, profit accordingly. So now Harrar is administered by Abyssinia. Up precipitous torrent-beds, along the sides of wild valleys I pushed forward in my frenzy for a AX ABYSSINIAN GUARDHOUSE. (Photoi^raph by Captain Powell-Cottox.) town. After what I had passed through it was already something to behold human habitations of the summer-house pattern, woods, grass, flowers no longer desiccated, fields under cultivation, and — wonder of wonders ! — the ripple of running water. A tuft of maiden-hair fern seemed the first-fruit of a Promised Land. It began to grow cool upon the mountains of Gildessa. Heiorho ! the relief. ENTERING ABYSSINIA 109 But the last stage, like the last straw, was the east endurable. The track grew ever rougher. It was impossible to ride. Walking became painful. There seemed a greater solitude among the trees than in the boundless plain, where solitude is more at home. And the surroundings were uncanny. There were horrible-lookino- cacti, such as one AITROACHI.XG IIAKRAK. meets in nightmares, and I could fancy they were hua-e snake-trees or veo^etable devil-fish. At a tiq-ht corner, one of these had fallen dowm and I had to creep beneath its tentacles, expecting every moment that it would seize and suck me in. Huge rats scurried away to their crannies. I came upon a mule, long dead, filling up the middle of the road and stinking. I lO ABYSSINIA At last, after much deferred hope, I strained my eyes from a height and espied a white building upon a broad brown hill, yes, and a tall white minaret hard by. There is Harrar," said Abdi. Where ? " Straight w^here you stare. There. Thcrcy I stared bravely for some seconds, but saw only the white building and the minaret upon the brown hill. Perhaps the surface of the hill was somewhat strange. No, that could not be the town of Harrar, unless the Harrari dwelt in ant-hills. Not ant-hills, perhaps, but very like ant-hills are these khaki edifices, which only the expert eye can distinguish from the brown hill whereon they rest. Like the ramifica- tions of an ant-hill or a rabbit-warren are those serried w^alls and mazy streets and sunbaked build- ings which are your first impression of this ancient and mysterious capital. Tempted to dwell too much upon the tedium of my journey hither, I must re- member that, less than fifty years ago, a Christian might only enter Harrar with his life in his hand. At least Burton, who was often tempted to magnify his exploits, tells us so. The walls appear of great strength, and the turreted gateway (one of five) may only be approached by a sharp ascent, which affronts my mule even after all he has gone through. I expect to be challenged by the tattered Abyssinian police, who are lounging outside a guard-house, but they content themselves with eyeing me in suspicious silence, and I pass in. I find myself amid a miniature ENTERING ABYSSINIA 1 1 1 market, and my retainers must force a way for my mule through a throng of Hstless peasants, who are there to sell the produce of the countryside. I scramble up a pathway which suggests the side of a ruined wall, and then the narrow streets of the human warren begin. The roads of Somaliland were bad enough, but A STREpyr IN HARRAR. the streets of Harrar are even worse. Once upon a time, in the dark ages, they must have been paved. Now the only remains of pavement are jagged white rocks and deep ruts or hollows, which act as pitfalls for any creature less agile than a goat. My friend, the British Consular Agent, when he takes me out to see the sights, is never tired of ABYSSINIA jesting over these incomparable streets. " Here," says he, pointing to a precipitous torrent-bed, where we must leap gingerly from boulder to boulder, — ''here is Northumberland Avenue; there," he goes on, scrambling into a muck-heap to avoid a flock of tiny white donkeys, — "there is New Bond Street." It is fortunate that there are no wheeled conveyances in Harrar, for they would fare ill. The word Abyssinian means mongrel, but that epithet would apply far more appropriately to the people of Harrar. Here Somalis, Gallas, Arabs, Egyptians, Danakils — the Lord only knows how manv other folk — dwell to^rether and intermarrv. Themselves have long abandoned the attempt to distinguish, and know each other impartially as Har- rari. They have even evolved a distinct language of their own, which no other townsmen have ever done before or since. The onlv recoQ^nised difference is between these Moslems and the Christian Abys- sinians, who are alien conquerors and officials rather than inhabitants. Even the Moslems, however, have acquired here something of the Abyssinian contempt for the ferenji (Frank, or European). No one steps out of your way unless you raise your stick, which is not always wise. Men walk straight at you with huge sacks on their heads and women staooer forward beneath immense sheaves of fuel, brushing both walls at once. Somewhat short of breath and temper, I reached the chief square, which is flanked on one side by the ENTERING ABYSSINIA 113 round Abyssinian Cathedral, on the other side by Ras (Prince) Makonnen's palace, whose high gate- way is adorned with a fringe of elephants' tails. Here was a posse of ragged warriors, whose chief occupation seems to consist in climbing the wall and blowing bugles— evidendy a favourite instrument with ENTRANCE TO RAS MAKONNEN's PALACE, IIARRAR. {Photograph by Captain Powell-Cottox.) the Abyssinian. After wrangles with the Customs and Garasmach Banti, the Acting Governor, I made my way to the French hotel, and suddenly emerged upon something very like civilisation. A number of Europeans were congregated round a billiard-table with absinthe at their elbows, and the landlord asked me casually when I should like my shower-bath. I 114 ABYSSINIA The entrance was through a long, low shop, by no means badly stocked, and some steps led me down to a courtyard and the queerest bedroom I ever slept in. It suggested a temple of the Pharaohs, and was, I learned, of Egyptian construction. On entering by an enormous wooden door I was confronted by a pro- jecting stoup as though for holy water. A recess for my bed was surrounded by alcoves in the plastered 1 1 ! 1 I THE GATE WITH THE ELEPHANTS' TAILS. wall, like tombs of the Ptolemies. To the right of this was a bamboo screen with a raised platform for a trellis bed, which faced a dark cave, where rats disported themselves by night. To the left was an earthen whitewashed screen and a wooden shutter, as of a harem window. This concealed the welcome shower-bath and led to another cave furnished with a mud divan all round its walls. There were holes ENTERING ABYSSINIA in the porous lloor for emptying slops, and zebra-skins took the place of carpets. After the desert this was almost luxury. The joy of sleeping- again on a real bedstead and the strange noises of the night made me dream I was in another planet. Ever and anon the lono- chaunt of the watchmen broke the stillness of the night mysteriously without — some- thing between the horror of a female singing scales and the music of the muezzin. Guiis kept going off. Hyenas howled so near that I was moved to barricade my cumbrous door. All the scavenging of Harrar is done by kindly hyenas and accommodating jackals. There are holes in the town walls for them to creep in after dusk and disappear at dawn. As in France the householder places his refuse in a pile outside his door and the municipal cart comes round before breakfast to clear it off, so here he deposits it and counts upon the services of wild beasts. I have even heard them howling in the courtyard of the inn. The land lord's nephew told me how he was walking home one night when suddenly two hyenas dashed along the street (Northumberland Avenue or New Bond Street, I forget which) pursued by a crowd of dogs. Hyenas are too cowardly to attack a man in cold blood, but their jaws are almost as formidable as those of tigers, and he might have received a bad bite as they passed. So he shot over a wall like a flash of lightning, and had all the difficulty in the world to satisfy the Moslem family he had so unceremoniously dis- turbed. I have alwavs held that no drainage is ii6 ABYSSINIA safer than bad drainage, but die Harrari system does not stand the test of epidemics. Once started, they soon assume dangerous proportions. The last time cholera visited Harrar the men died like flies, and the women only escaped starvation by eating their own children. The streets of Harrar are not inviting by night, and I think I only frequented them once when I was returning from an Abyssinian wedding. You are confronted by intense loneliness and a darkness which may be felt. Any native who ventures forth is promptly arrested, unless he be in attendance on an European or an official. You must have men ahead and men behind to hold out lanterns and warn you of boulders and pitfalls or prevent your stepping upon a growling pariah dog. In Harrar there is little to see, but much to observe. The place is full of contrasts. Menelik's telephone wire stands out against a minaret or a mud cabin ; you step out from table cT hotc to en- counter a three-legged race, which turns out to be merely a prisoner manacled to his gaoler ; in the principal square you are sickened with the smell of ordure ; you step into the bazaar, and every shop is provided with a little bowl of incense which wafts a subtle fragrrance on the foetid air. Never shall I forget the impression made upon me by the meat market there. Instead of hanging their scraggy bits of cat's-meat on clothes-lines, as the Somalis do, the natives exposed them in large ill- hacked joints on long wooden tables saturated with ENTERING ABYSSINIA 11/ the blood and filth of o'enerations. The stench was something indescribable, and the hustling, eager customers suggested a pack of hounds invading a knacker's yard. As for the bazaars, their contents are rather useful than ornamental. I had hoped to bring back many strange characteristic things in common use among the people, but on the whole I was considerably disappointed. I gathered together a small collection of the jewellery of the Somali and Abyssinian peasants. Mr. Theodore Bent asserted in his " Sacred City of the Ethio- pians " that these were of Greek origin, but I am convinced that the patterns are either derived from India or else adapted by Indian artificers from some aboriginal design. Filigree work predominates, and the only difference between the two is that the Somali is heavier and more barbaric. I have secured great necklaces of silver beads, provided for both nations, with a hollow cylinder of silver in front, destined to contain an amulet. The bracelets are kept together by sturdy screws, the earrings are enormous and fitted with a beard of silver tongues such as might serve in very small bells. It is only necessary to look at my collection in order to feel certain that all the jewellery must have had a common origin. Another argument on behalf of India is that both Somalis and Abyssinians wear a great many ornaments which admittedly come from India, the most obvious being snake-like coloured glass bangles, which may be bought anywhere in Aden for an anna or two. ii8 ABYSSINIA The essentially Abyssinian ornaments are very few. Chief amongst them are a silver or silver-gilt ring, a cross, and an ear-pick, which three are almost invariably worn upon a blue string round the neck, rhey must have some symbolical meaning", but what it is in the case of the ear-pick I have tried in vain to discover. What connection it can have with a cross and a ring is a puzzle. The blue cord, called mateb, is worn universally as a badge of Christianity, and is more readily recognised than even a cross. Native crosses with all sorts of strange and venerable designs are to be found, but it is difficult to induce their owners to part with them. The only one I have secured is silv^er gilt, and has upon it a pattern of the tree of life, which experts assure me is of Celtic origin, though how it could be so I am utterly at a loss to say. I have also some curious horn and wucker goblets, some wooden neck pillows, which the women affect so that their greasy headdress may not be disturbed ; a peculiar hairpin of gilt filigree pattern, worn over the ear ; an Abyssinian lyre, very like the old Roman instrument and similar to that always played by King David in an Abyssinian picture, and a violin with a drum sounding-board and an absurd bow, such as might be used by a child for projecting toy arrows. This also appears in the pictures as supplying the traditional music for the death of the Virgin Mary. What pleases me perhaps most to exhibit is a quiver full of poisoned arrows, from the Ogaden country, as people who take them out and play with them are ENTERING ABYSSINIA 119 always desperately afraid of impregnating themselves with poison. This poison, however, is probably not so dangerous as most people imagine, for Count Leontieff's doctor told me that when one of their party was hit by a poisoned arrow the wound rapidly yielded to the ordinary treatment for snake-bites. Abyssinia is no place for fortune-hunters, but I am inclined to agree with certain residents, who represent Harrar as an ideal residence for sportsmen with small, reo'ular incomes. You mioht build vourself a countrv house of sorts, keep fifteen servants and half a dozen horses, and spend all your time riding or shooting on less than ^600 a year. As for food, you would shoot a o-reat deal of it, but vou mav also buv a verv fine sheep for 7s. 6d. to 9s. 6d., an enormous ox for less than ^4, a plump chicken for a shilling, and so on in proportion. The only expensive things are the im- ported ones, and you would have to reduce your need of them to a minimum. You would soon be able to grow fruit and vegetables, which are now practically non-existent, and call other luxuries into being. And your wardrobe would not weigh down your exchequer. Harrar is not critical about fashions, and a score of khaki suits at a pound or so each would last you a lifetime. The chief drawbacks would be the loneliness and the difficulty of getting away : that endless journey to the coast every time you wanted to go home. There is of course the prospect of the railway from [ibuti. but if by any remote chance it ever does come to any- thing, many of Harrar's advantages will disappear with the drawbacks. Quidnuncs and olobe-trotters 120 ABYSSINIA will come, native simplicity will vanish, prices will rise, even game laws may be called into existence. For a delicate man a sojourn at Harrar might spell salvation. I have already alluded to the astounding robustness with which my journey has endowed me. And that is after enduring a varietv of extremes, beinor parched one week and drenched the next, alternately gasping and shivering, sleeping in fever-swamps and witnessing a drop of 40^ of the thermometer at sunset. Harrar, however, supplies the golden mean. For the whole year the extremes of temperature are 63° and 82° ; during eight months the variation rarely exceeds 71° and 75°. The town is some 6,000 feet above the level of the sea, and the air will give that of many Alpine health resorts points. For any lung complaint it is a sovereign remedy, and asthma is conjured as thouo-h bv mao-ic. The rainv season lasts for three or four months. It is inaugurated by several days of Scots mist ; then come heavy storms, lasting for two hours at most out of the twenty-four, and o:enerallv considerate enoui>'h to choose the nio-ht- time for their visits. However, I am perfectly willing to lay a thousand to three that no one will choose Harrar as a health resort, thouj^h I extol temperature, air, and storms never so wisely. Pockets nowadays take precedence of lungs. But I am considering that amphibious creature, the indi\ idual with a moderate income, that "tweeny man who rules the modern roast. Happy thought : he shall farm ! Practically nothing of the sort has yet been ENTERING ABYSSINIA 121 attempted in the neighbourhood. Wheat is scarcely sown at all. Even Indian corn is but sparingly produced, though every attempt has afforded crops of amazing luxuriance. The lazy, careless native contents himself for the most part with growing durra, a weedy corn which almost sows and reaps itself, and, in a good year, may be relied upon for two crops. His notions of agriculture are primitive in the extreme. His spade consists of a sharp-pointed stick with a kind of mushroom handle. He plunges it lazily sideways into the ground and twists it slowly round and round, with the result that he does little more than scrape the surface. He has a poor sort of plough, but does not trouble to eradicate the stubble ; it is so much simpler to set light to it and risk a forest fire hard by. Anything so arduous as coffee- planting is left to the care of the Gallas, who remain more or less in the position of serfs. The coffee is exported as Moka, and a Frenchman defended this to me on the score that the plants had originally come from Yemen. The trade, of course, knows the difference, calling Abyssinian coffee "long-berry," and Arabian "short-berry Moka." The odd thing is that in Arabia no trouble is taken to irrigate, while in Abyssinia there is much irrigation and an inferior result. There need be no limit to the produce which might be extorted from so much virgin soil. Similarly a little science would soon transfiorure the native cattle. The sheep possess an unrivalled capacity for fattening, their tails readily putting on several pounds 122 ABYSSINIA of fat and leaving the bodies to put on the most exquisite lean. Indeed it might be worth while to experiment with this breed in England — this con- siderate breed which relegates all its fat to the tail. Similarly the oxen are merely sent out to pasture and left to take their chance, whereas, if properly fed, they would yield good and abundant meat. The cows again give very little milk merely from lack of nutriment. Money, too, might be made out of breeding donkeys. In Abyssinia they are larger than in Egypt, and no less intelligent. Indeed, all the domestic animals are far more human than they would be in Europe, probably because, like the Irish pig, they share the hovels of their masters. And a gastronomic missionary might introduce veal. At present your over-canny Abyssinian will not slay a beast before it is full grown. Now for the drawbacks. Land is not for sale. It may be leased, but only with difficulty and at an undue rent. An Abyssinian prefers to make nothing out of his property rather than to alienate it to a foreigner. If ever the country is to be developed (always a doubtful advantage for a country), there must be some drastic modification of the land tenure. And cattle suffer much from epizootic disease. The natives have a remedy, which is said to yield excellent results. Here is the prescription. Collect the urine of a beast that is seriously sick. Allow it to putrefy, mix it with milk, and offer it to the healthy. They ail for a while but recover, and are then proof against infection. No one knows who devised this pro- ENTERING ABYSSINIA 123 phylactic. It is doubtless mere peasant's empiricism, but it has proved so successful that it deserves the notice of the faculty. If the subject were properly studied and the right degree of putrefaction were ascertained there mio-ht be results useful to the world at large. The Emperor IMenelik, who takes a perennial interest in the welfare of his subjects, has commissioned a French doctor, with the German name of Wurst, to investigate the question. The friends of cattle must look out for the results of his researches. If I recommended any one to go and settle at Harrar, it would be the small man, the labourer or mechanic, who finds it hard to make both ends meet at home. I talked to a young French carpenter who has set up there and finds more employment than he can cope with. Having no competitors, he can charge what he pleases, and must be putting by a pretty penny. If any one chose to go out and make bricks or pottery or plaster or cement or glass, he would find an equally open field. I believe there is not a pane of glass in the whole town, though the European residents would be very glad to get it. Yet there is plenty of sand, which would make the manufacture possible, and the soil is admirably adapted for making pottery and even porcelain. The only idea of the natives is to model great amphoras, capable of holding 30 to 35 litres, with their hands, and bury them in great heaps of durra-stalk and weeds, which they burn for a day or two. They are quite ignorant of the use of the wheel. 124 ABYSSINIA Mining prospectors might also come and look round. So far no serious investioration has been made, thougrh I am given to understand that copper and iron certainly exist. As to coal, nobody knows. But the man who discovered it ought to make his fortune, for combustibles are at famine prices. The Abyssinian plan is to use up all the wood near a town and then transfer the town some miles away, where fresh forests abound. This is all very well in the case of a mere camp like the capital, but Harrar is too solid and unwieldy to dream of such nomadic habits. But the one insuperable objection remains : the monstrous craft and subtlety of the Abyssinian. You or I might spend ourselves and our treasures in dis- covering coal or copper or iron or gold or emeralds ; we might call new^ industries into being and establish an era of prosperity ; but the Abyssinian would take all the profit, and we should be left out in the cold. Not long ago it was a matter of some difficulty for any European, and perhaps more particularly for an Englishman, to obtain permission to travel beyond Harrar. Now, thanks to the prestige, which has been restored since Captain Harrington was sent as Diplomatic Agent to Menelik, our countrymen are very welcome. 1 had scarcely reached Harrar before the Emperor began telephoning to hurry me on. It appears that some officious person had told him that I was brino-inor letters for him from the Queen of England. The only source I can conceive for such a rumour was that some one at Aden asked me if I would take up some rose-trees from Queen \^ictoria. ENTERING ABYSSINIA 125 I replied that I should be very glad to oblige a lady, but in the end the parcel went up without me. After a few days at Harrar, His Majesty's attentions became almost embarrassing. Every morning there would be some amiable inquiry about me by telephone. -Why had I not started ? Had the Garasmach or anybody else presumed to interfere with my departure.'^ The Garasmach must do everything in his power to assist me. And so forth. The Garasmach, who was present when one of these messages arrived, grew quite nervous, and hastened to protest that he had not impeded me in any way. Why had I not started ? Because the mulemen would not be hurried. I have had occasion to describe the vexations which I suffered at the hands of my camelmen, but they were docile lambs or angels of light compared to the infernal mulemen. These are known as naofadis, an Amharic word meaning merchants, but they are really nothing more than carriers. If you send luggage with them, they usually take forty or fifty or even sixty days to cover the 291 miles to the capital. If you accompany them you must probably count upon a journey of a month, and you may consider yourself very lucky or very clever if you induce them to cover the ground in three weeks. Mr. Gerolimato, the British Consular Agent, kindly found me some nagadis, and one morning a number of oily, grinning Abyssinians strolled into my bedroom before I was up. They had come to take stock of my luggage and make terms. I asked how long we should take to reach Addis Ababa. There was a long pause 126 ABYSSINIA and they eyed me thoughtfully, tryino- to sum up my character. Well what did I think of thirty days? Ridiculous! That was less than ten miles a day. At the very least I must cover twenty miles. The grins expanded half an inch. The men raised their arms and aimed with imaginary guns. It would be a pity to hurry. I should be sure to want to shoot on the way. No. I must go fast in order to reach the Court for the Christmas festivities. There would be time to shoot on the way back if I wanted to. With considerable reluctance they proposed twenty- six days. I suggested fourteen. A\'e finally com- promised it at twenty, on my agreeing to take several extra mules, pay at a higher rate, and promise a bonus of one dollar per mule for every day saved. This last proviso seemed to provoke vast satisfaction, the grins grew prodigiously, and I flattered myself that all would go very well indeed. Little did I know the Abyssinian muleman ! Mr. Gerolimato smiled mysteriously when I confided my hopes to him. The nagadis had said they would be ready to start on the morrow, but that, he explained, meant that they would come and sew up my luggage in cloth coverino- on the morrow, but that I should be verv luckv if I o-ot off in three or four davs. These three or four days passed, but the wretches gave no sign of departure. I plied them with messages and remonstrances, to which they replied politely, but still no move was made. Then at last they said they really would start on the morrow. I made all my ENTERING ABYSSINIA 127 final preparations, only to find that by start " they merely meant start to fetch their mules, which were out at grass three days away owing to the drought. I was for throwing up these provoking people and looking out for others in their stead, but Mr. Gerolimato convinced me that if I did so it would mean starting in ten days' time at the earliest. After about a week's delay, I woke up one mc^rning to the old tumult in the yard outside my Egyptian bedroom. " Wariya, Abdi ! " " Hajji-oooo!" "Reggel- 0000!" " Ba Menelik ! " the voices rang out to an accompaniment of sawing, hammering, cackling, laughter, and general jabbering. High above all was the irritating guttural Ah — h ! " with which every Somali, and more particularly my shikari, the Pilgrim, punctuates his remarks. I passed out of the gates of Harrar into a pitch dark night. The going was over something between hard earth and soft rock, interspersed with small swamps. As in a tract or religious allegory, the road began quite broad and distinct, presently it became a vague path, then a marsh, and finally we found ourselves in a hillocky wilderness with pitfalls all round. The Pilgrim announced that we had lost the way, and he began to cast about with his lantern in circles, like a will-o'-the-wisp. Presently Abdi, ever the sharpest of my party, came up and solved the difficulty. He pointed to the left and said, " There is the photo- graph tree ! " I began to wonder what sort of new tropical plant this might be. It was evidently now in its dark-room. Then I discovered he meant the 128 ABYSSINIA telephone pole, which marks the way right through to Addis xAbaba. We followed the lines until we came to the camp at Lake Aramaya, where a pleasing repast was in process of preparation. A pretty litde lake, covered with all kind of waterfowl, and approached by long avenues of candelabra-shaped cactus, with which I was destined to become vastly familiar. Unless it be the umbrella- pine, there is no tree so graceful : imagine an endless succession of grey-green seven-branched candlesticks, fifteen or twenty feet high, like a vision of the loot of Jerusalem. Cut one of them and a thick milky juice spurts out. Mine host of the "Lion" at Harrarwent out one day to see if he could not use it as indiarubber, but he was incautious enough to smear some into his eyes, and it blinded him for days. The journey now presented a great contrast to the transit of Somaliland. The thermometer went down to 49° in the night, and there seemed no absurdity in the mulemen wearing thick sheepskins over their shoulders. What an easy garment : a mere hole for your head, and here is a natural cloak. And the wilderness v*^as left behind. We camped on the grass of an English park, and traversed pleasing stretches of down amid a vista of nodding vellow durra and endless acres of stubble. Here and there the scenery was varied by strange black patches, where this stubble had been burnt according to the lazy local agriculture. Batches of cosy little thatched summer-houses nestled together amid shrubberies of candelabra cactus, not so very unlike English homesteads and attendant farm- ENTERING ABYSSINIA 129 buildings. My camp, as I approached it at sunset, was invariably picturesque with tufts of blue smoke rising reluctantly from half a dozen fires, and the whole herd of mules lounging or sniffing in every direction. All sorts of strange smells filled the air and linger in my memory. In a few days I was in the midst of mysterious forests. There were gigantic junipers on every hand, here and there graceful trees of umbrella-shape all clothed in a tangle of shrubs and brambles. At frequent intervals we came upon charred stumps ; now and again upon a small forest fire — a cascade of blazing brambles, crackling up a ravine and attacking a large tree right up to the topmost branches, while a stream of pale blue smoke wound itself away into the forest. Many jackals bayed in chorus afar off. The sun was hot, but a fresh breeze sang among the leaves. Peer- ing through a gap we saw beneath us low, yellow hills dotted with dark green shrubs, further away higher hills of deeper colour and thicker vegetation, finally a boundless plain with all the colours of a kaleidoscope, fading away into a mist. Let me sum up the scenery by suggesting Switzerland tempered by Sussex. Now we will leave to the imagination of artists all the lovely woods, russet tints, deep green shadows, weep- ing lichens, and English-looking parks. Here is a telephone station in the heart of the Galla country. A number of little summer-houses are grouped together inside a huge stockade. As usual the Abyssinian officials are disobliging. They prefer to go on with their eating or dozing, and it is quite a K I30 ABYSSINIA long time before we can unearth an unsavoury in- dividual wearing a tattered sheet, and induce him to unlock the call-office. This is a bare hut with mud floor and mudded walls, to which the instrument is attached. I ring up the Consul at Harrar, but by the time he has been summoned, this poor little call-office is thronged with Abyssinians, most inquisitive of mortals. One actually sits down on my bench at close quarters and resents it when, misliking his perfume, I push him off. At first the x^Lbyssinians condemned the telephone as black magic, but now they have succumbed to its delight as a toy. In their country you cannot enjoy the luxury of a private conversation over the lines, for anybody at any of the stations has only to put the tubes to his ear and listen. This the man in charge does nearly all day long. There is no means of isolation, and if you want to ring up one place, you must ring them all up at the same time. It is also difficult to make yourself heard, for apart from the fact that monkeys are probably dancing on the wires some- where, the odds are that half a dozen natives are trying to converse at the same time. I realised the drawbacks of this system when I was trying to spell an address in Rome, to which I wanted the Consul to transmit a message by post. I w^ould shout three or four letters very distinctly, and then all the rest would be drowned in a perfect babel of squeaky Abyssinian voices. The Government is fully alive to this, and sets apart so many hours very early each morning for the transmission of its own messages. Then a posse of ENTERING ABYSSINIA 131 soldiers is posted at every station to prevent anybody from listening. Really, I found it almost as difficult to converse over fifty miles of Abyssinian line as it is between London and Brighton, the which is saying a good deal. On reaching the H awash river, I found the only iron bridge, I might almost say the only bridge of any kind which exists in Abyssinia. It looks ; __J