First footsteps in East Africa | Page 9

and is in reality the only
safeguard of a traveller's property.
[Illustration: Map to illustrate LIEUT. BURTON'S Route to HARAR
_from a Sketch by the late Lieut. W. Stroyan, Indian Navy._]
[Illustration: BERBERAH]

CONTENTS.
PREFACE

CHAPTER I.
Departure from Aden
CHAP. II. Life in Zayla
CHAP. III. Excursions near Zayla
CHAP. IV. The Somal, their Origin and Peculiarities
CHAP. V. From Zayla to the Hills
CHAP. VI. From the Zayla Hills to the Marar Prairie
CHAP. VII. From the Marar Prairie to Harar
CHAP. VIII. Ten Days at Harar
CHAP. IX. A Ride to Berberah
CHAP. X. Berberah and its Environs
POSTSCRIPT
APPENDICES

LIST OF PLATES.
Harar, from the Coffe Stream Map of Berberah Route to Harar The
Hammal Costume of Harar H. H. Ahmed Bin Abibakr, Amir of Harar
[Illustration]

CHAPTER I.
DEPARTURE FROM ADEN.
I doubt not there are many who ignore the fact that in Eastern Africa,
scarcely three hundred miles distant from Aden, there is a counterpart
of ill-famed Timbuctoo in the Far West. The more adventurous

Abyssinian travellers, Salt and Stuart, Krapf and Isenberg, Barker and
Rochet,--not to mention divers Roman Catholic Missioners,--attempted
Harar, but attempted it in vain. The bigoted ruler and barbarous people
threatened death to the Infidel who ventured within their walls; some
negro Merlin having, it is said, read Decline and Fall in the first
footsteps of the Frank. [1] Of all foreigners the English were, of course,
the most hated and dreaded; at Harar slavery still holds its
head-quarters, and the old Dragon well knows what to expect from the
hand of St. George. Thus the various travellers who appeared in beaver
and black coats became persuaded that the city was inaccessible, and
Europeans ceased to trouble themselves about Harar.
It is, therefore, a point of honor with me, dear L., to utilise my title of
Haji by entering the city, visiting the ruler, and returning in safety, after
breaking the guardian spell.
The most auspicious day in the Moslem year for beginning a journey is,
doubtless, the 6th of the month Safar [2], on which, quoth the Prophet,
El Islam emerged from obscurity. Yet even at Aden we could not avail
ourselves of this lucky time: our delays and difficulties were a fit
prelude for a journey amongst those "Blameless Ethiopians," with
whom no less a personage than august Jove can dine and depart. [3]
On Sunday, the 29th October, 1854, our manifold impediments were
pronounced complete. Friend S. threw the slipper of blessing at my
back, and about 4 P.M. embarking from Maala Bunder, we shook out
our "muslin," and sailed down the fiery harbour. Passing the guard-boat,
we delivered our permit; before venturing into the open sea we repeated
the Fatihah- prayer in honor of the Shaykh Majid, inventor of the
mariners' compass [4], and evening saw us dancing on the bright clear
tide, whose "magic waves," however, murmured after another fashion
the siren song which charmed the senses of the old Arabian voyagers.
[5]
Suddenly every trace of civilisation fell from my companions as if it
had been a garment. At Aden, shaven and beturbaned, Arab fashion,
now they threw off all dress save the loin cloth, and appeared in their
dark morocco. Mohammed filled his mouth with a mixture of coarse

Surat tobacco and ashes,--the latter article intended, like the
Anglo-Indian soldier's chili in his arrack, to "make it bite." Guled
uncovered his head, a member which in Africa is certainly made to go
bare, and buttered himself with an unguent redolent of sheep's tail; and
Ismail, the rais or captain of our "foyst," [6] the Sahalah, applied
himself to puffing his nicotiana out of a goat's shank-bone. Our crew,
consisting of seventy-one men and boys, prepared, as evening fell, a
mess of Jowari grain [7] and grease, the recipe of which I spare you,
and it was despatched in a style that would have done credit to Kafirs
as regards gobbling, bolting, smearing lips, licking fingers, and using
ankles as napkins. Then with a light easterly breeze and the ominous
cliffs of Little Aden still in sight, we spread our mats on deck and
prepared to sleep under the moon. [8]
My companions, however, felt, without perhaps comprehending, the
joviality arising from a return to Nature. Every man was forthwith
nicknamed, and pitiless was the raillery upon the venerable subjects of
long and short, fat and thin. One sang a war-song, another a love-song,
a third some song of the sea, whilst the fourth, an Eesa youth, with the
villanous expression of face common to his tribe, gave us a rain
measure, such as men chaunt during wet weather. All these effusions
were naive and amusing: none, however, could bear English translation
without an amount of omission which would change their nature.