1897 a trip by Sawayn "Cawar" through western Somalia

[XKeyse_]

We entered a patch of bush, when suddenly the jungle be-
came alive with camels and sheep, and several young women
rushed at the caravan with their hands spread out and eyes
flashing, screaming loudly for help, while others plied sticks and
stones to drive off the flocks, in a deafening clamour and clouds
of dust ; and boys ran off in haste to summon the fighting men
of the tribe.

I sat down in the path, trying to look as amiable as possible,
for I realised what our sudden appearance must have been to
these natives. Several of my men, more ready, raced forward
and caught the flying messengers, and brought them back to me
as prisoners. The women were sure we were Abyssinians, for
we carried guns; but finding we were English, a revulsion of
feeling set in, and the boys went off to tell the tribe the joyful
news, and the women to get milk for our men.

The mounted guard soon galloped up, a sturdy-looking lot,
some twenty of the Rer Ali tribe ; they expressed their delight
by circling their horses, shouting, " Mot ! Mot I io Mot I " and
coming up again and again, bending down in the saddle to shake
hands with us ; and their steaming ponies formed a dense circle
round us as we endeavoured to do justice to the hands.

The people asked us to stop for a few hours to shoot rhino-
ceroses, but we were unable to spare the time, as we were
carrying on a rapid survey, and also had too little water to be
able to loiter in the centre of the Hand. We passed enormous
flocks of fat sheep, and near camp met a pretty young woman
driving her dowry of a hundred camels. Our men said this Rer
Ali wealth was good to look at, and that a few determined horse-
men armed with guns could have taken off ten thousand camels
at one swoop.

While camped at Kheidub-Ayeyu we observed a long strip
of jungle-fire creeping along the ridge of thorn-forest in our
front. Clouds of smoke were floating far ahead of the fire, and
it must have been driven by a strong south-west gale, judging
by the pace. The Habr Gerhajis and two sub- tribes of the
Habr Awal had at different times taken advantage of this
solitary occupation by trying to loot the karias, but were always
driven off. Although living in only two, there were a large
number of fighting men in proportion to the women and children
in this clan ; and they were some of the best mounted of the
Rer Ali, always a warlike tribe. The chief of the clan was
called Mahomed Liba. We marched through patches of burnt jungle, with the trees
still smouldering, and pits left in the ground full of white ashes,
where the roots had been burnt out.

Near Yoaleh we came to stony ground, the first since leav-
ing Aror. On 25th July we left the Hand and descended into
the valley of the Tug Milmil, a sandy nala wooded with g6h ^
trees about eighty feet high, fringing the river-bed and growing
on islands in the centre of the expanse of sand, some seventy
yards wide at this point. We found ponies, sheep, and camels
of the Rer Hariin and Rer Ali, Ogden, watering at Milmil
wells. One continuous stream of camels marched up and down
the river-bed, and we must have seen some twenty thousand in all.

There had been a quarrel just before our arrival between the
Rer Harun here and Mahomed Liba's clan we had met at
Kheidub-Ayeyu, in which two men had been killed and two
hundred camels had changed owners.

On the day of our arrival at Milmil, at the end of the Hand
crossing of one hundred and five miles, I had still seven full
hdns in my portion of the caravan, nine having been expended,
say forty gallons of water for fifteen men for five days. About
fifteen gallons of this had been spilt from various causes, so that
fifteen men, one Arab fast camel, and two goats drank only
twenty-seven gallons, or a little over five gallons a day, including
cooking water. I attribute this moderation partly to the coolness
of the weather in the elevated Hand. We had crossed in five
days, thus doing twenty-one miles a day ; this fact will indicate
the good state of the caravan track over the red stoneless soil.
Indeed, as I have stated before, a bicycle might have been
ridden at speed over nine-tenths of the distance.

The Haud ends at Milmil in a succession of bluffs a hundred
feet high, and as one descends between these to the Milmil nala,
one emerges on to the general level of OgMen, and farther on
at the wells the country opens up, disclosing several hills ; two
of these, called Firk-Firk, resemble the remarkable twin hills at
Hargeisa called "Ndso Hablod," or the "Maiden's Breasts."

Soon after we had pitched camp at the part of Milmil called
Gagdb an important travelling sheikh arrived. The Somdli so-
called sheikh is a mullah who has gained a great and widespread

^ A large rounded tree producing quantities of edible red berries. They
look like cherries, and have a stone inside, but taste like half-dried apples.
reputation for piety, and being intelligent, even among mullahs,
can often read and write Arabic, although he is generally as
black or brown in skin as any other Somdii.

The horsemen of the Rer Ali came down in scores, attired in
all their finery of red-tasselled saddlery and red and blue khaili
tobes, to go through the usual dabaldeg before the great man,
whose name is Au Mahomed Sufi. They formed a large crowd
on the sand of the river-bed below our tent, which was pitched
under some large trees overhanging the Milmil nala. The
sheikh's own bivouac was on the same bank of the river, about
five hundred yards to the north of us. I joined the crowd of
onlookers with my brother, and Au Mahomed Sufi, the recipient
of the honours of the day, came forward and shook hands with
us, and gave us a place by his side.

This man was travelling through Ogden, and was, I after-
wards learnt, part of an organised plot for rousing the Somali
tribes to combine against the Abyssinians. After the dibdltig
he lifted his spear and addressed the assembled people, beginning
by himself singing what appeared to be a composition of his
own.

It was during the early part of the afternoon that some
five hundred horse and foot came to our camp for the promised
ceremonies. Au Mahomed Sufi attended, and we gave him a
place beside us. On a signal being given, the horsemen drew
up in line in front of us, and the chief tribal minstrel of the
rer Ali, while sitting in the saddle, sang a refrain in honour of
the English, and of myself and my brother, who had " deigned
to visit their poor oppressed country."

On the conclusion of the song the horsemen gave a series
of shrill yells, and with arms and legs flying, started off at
full gallop in pursuit of an imaginary enemy up the river-bed ;
and the pounding of the hoofs could be heard long after they
had been lost to sight in clouds of red dust. Presently they
came back again, the glinting of the sun on their spears being
first fitfully seen in the pall of dust ; and darting up furiously,
they brought their ponies on to their haunches with the cruel
bit, forming a dense semicircle of horses' heads within a foot
of me, the riders crying, " Mot I " and being answered by " Kul
leban " and a hand-shake.

Au Mahomed Sufi began a long speech, which was heard
in dead silence by the crowd, saying that now the white men
had come it was time to attack the Abyssinians, and that if we
would lead them with our thirty rifles, they could soon collect
a large force and march on the Abyssinian chief, Basha-Basha.

We interrupted him, broke up the meeting, and retired to
our tents, saying we had come to survey caravan routes and
not to be mixed up in their quarrels.

In the evening we gave a performance in return, parading
the thirty camp-followers in line, armed with their Snider
carbines, advancing and retiring in skirmishing order, and
forming rallying groups ; and we fired off" blank cartridge, each
volley being echoed by an answering yell from the delighted
tribesmen.

They said that now the English, their masters, had come
the Abyssinians would leave oflf raiding their camels and
carrying off their women. Many of the chiefs came to our
tents begging for written testimonials, saying that they were
sure a scrap of paper written on by an Englishman was enough
alone to keep back an Abyssinian army. The women and
children hung round my camel and my brother's pony in
crowds, crying out, "Now it's all right; the English have
come."

Then came the question of presents. The people had
brought us a few sheep and a donkey, and long rows of their
milk -vessels, which are prettily decorated with white shells.
We picked out an 6kil to whom Sheikh Mattar of Hargeisa
had given us a letter of introduction ; then we put into his
hands several white tobes and two kJiaili tobes, and asked him
to settle with the chiefs of clans. There arose a tremendous
clamour, each clan having sent an advocate to represent it in
the scramble for tobes, which occurred in the river-bed below.
An indescribable uproar continued until nightfall, the clamouring
" wise men " squatting on the ground in circles, looking for all
the world like vultures with their skinny necks and shaven
skulls, clawing with lean fingers at the presents spread out on
the sand. There was a scuffle down at the wells, across the
river, where two men had retired to settle an old feud. After
throwing their spears, they closed and stabbed at each other,
the spears striking the shields with a hollow thud, which we
could hear from our tents three hundred yards away; but
they were subsequently parted by a posse of relations.

By nightfall we were glad that the long dusty day of
ceremony was over, and next morning, when a number of Rer

Harun horsemen arrived and asked to be allowed to repeat the
show, we found ourselves obliged to decline the honour, and
continued our survey westward towards the Abyssinian border.

Our men, on the night of the Rer Ali dibdltig^ went to the
karias and danced till nearly daylight, the women clapping
their hands and jumping up and down, keeping up a monotonous
refrain. Next day half our men were ill, having gorged them-
selves upon the mutton and camel-meat generously provided by
the Rer Ali.

We passed the deserted village of Dagahbur and reached a
rounded grassy hill called Tiili, and it was while encamped here
that we shot the first Somali rhinoceros, an animal which for
many years we had expected to come upon, but which up till
then had never been seen or shot by a European. We found
plenty of game at Tiili, and as I rode up to the rounded hill to
choose a site for my camp, a troop of ostriches went racing
away into the sea of bush and grass to the north-west.

To the west of Gumbur Tiili lay a valley covered with
dense dark mim6sa forest, called Dih Wiyileh, or Rhinoceros
Valley. Between Dagahbiir and Waror, an interval of fifty
miles, the country was waterless at this season, and hearing
that Waror was occupied by Abyssinian soldiers, I deemed it
advisable to arrive there with a supply of water on the camels ;
so finding the hdns rather low, I had to wait at Tiili a couple of
days while we sent back to Dagahbiir for more water.

The time had come when I hoped to make the acquaintance
of the long -sought rhinoceroses; and I left camp in the early
morning with my two gunbearers G^li and Hassan, and another
man called Au Ismail, who led our one camel and acted as
guide. Taking a line to the south-west across the Dih Wiyileh
from Tiili Hill, we presently came on fresh rhinoceros-signs.
These we took up till nearly mid-day, the two beasts we were
following having made a maze of tracks there while feeding
in the morning. At last G61i pointed to our game — two
rhinoceroses standing, apparently asleep, under a shady thorn
bush. I advanced to forty yards, and opened fire with the four-
bore, putting a four- ounce bullet into the shoulder of each with
a right and left, making them tear away at a gallop through
the jungle. I followed at best pace, putting in two more
cartridges as I ran, and so finishing one of the rhinos. Passing
this one, I found the other standing in thick bush broadside-on,
listening and looking for its fellow. Feeling for cartridges, I

put my hand into empty pockets, the rest having fallen out in
my haste, so I ran back to the camel to snatch more out of a
haversack. Au Ismail saw me running back away from the
rhinoceros, and jumped to the conclusion that I was running
away ! So he began to bolt with the camel. I ran harder
and harder, shouting to him to stop, and at last I got hold of
him and explained what I wanted. Then, re-armed, I returned
to the rhinoceros, which had been standing meanwhile in the
same place, apparently unable to make out what I was about,
and too sick to charge. Another shot finished it. Unfortun-
ately they were both cows, but I was very pleased at the result
of my first rhino hunt.

I returned with the two heads to camp, and sent half a dozen
men to cut off the shields, of which we obtained thirty-five from
the two skins. These men arrived in camp next morning, and
said that while they had been cutting up the rhinos by the light
of torches, several more had come round them, and a lion had
roared to the westward.

On our second day at Tiili we were unsuccessful with the
rhinos, and when the water came from Dagahbiir we marched
to Gumbur Wedel, a small hill four miles to the north-west
across the Rhinoceros Valley. Here we found beisa, ostriches,
and Soemmerring's and Waller's gazelles very plentiful, and
rhino tracks numerous.

At 5 A.M. on 6th August we left Wedel, and for three miles
struggled through thick grass and jungle, and then struck a
good path running north-west. After going a mile along this
I saw fresh rhino tracks where a pair had crossed the path
during the night, and so going on with the caravan, I left my
brother to take up the pursuit. At our evening camp he
arrived with the heads of both, a very line bull and a cow, and
we skinned them by firelight.

On the morning of the 7th August the caravan marched
sixteen miles to a karia of the rer Gedi, Abbasgiil, sub-tribe, at
a place called Hadddma. Early in the day, while walking along
the path, I came on the fresh tracks of a large bull rhino, so,
placing the caravan and traversing work in charge of my
brother, I left the path on these tracks followed by Geli and
Hassan. The rhinoceros had taken a straight line for a ridge
of low hills to the south, which are a continuation of the Harar
highlands, and after following for several miles through thick
jungle and over burnt clearings, the sun getting hotter and
hotter, we at last put him up about noon, making him rush off
through the forest without our even getting a sight of him. I
took up the tracking patiently for an hour more, and then we
heard the trampling and snorting and smashing of thorn-trees
again. Following at a run, we saw him standing broadside-on,
listening, in the centre of several acres of very transparent but
dense and thorny wait-a-bit cover. We at once lay down. Not
hearing our footsteps any more, the rhino trotted forward, head
held high, for fifty yards, and then stood and listened again.
He looked decidedly vicious. We crawled up to a small ever-
green shrub, and I sat up behind it, and taking a steady rest upon
my knees, fired for his ear at a range of seventy yards with my
ten-bore rifle. The bull dropped in his tracks, an inert mass.
Going up, we found that the ten-bore bullet had hit him exactly
where I aimed, entering under the left ear and stopping under
the skin of the right temple.

It was twenty-five miles from camp, and as the camel was
fully occupied in carrying the massive head and a few shields,
I had to tramp the whole way. This, added to the hot track-
ing work of five hours before we got the rhino, and the fast
run after putting him up, made a long day's work, and I was
right glad at sunset to meet some men whom my brother had
considerately sent back with water and dates to bring us on
to my half of the caravan, which he had halted for me at
Hadd^ma. He had gone on to Warer, for we never allowed
shooting to delay the rate of progress, and I came up with him
there next morning; as usual we re-formed the double camp,
with our Cabul tents side by side. The camp was pitched near
the wells in a beautiful glade, covered with green grass, kept
short by the Abbasgiil herds. We found an immense number of
cows watering here, the chief wealth of the Abbasgiil being in
cattle. The wells at Waror are narrow, circular funnels seventy
feet deep, sunk through the red alluvial earth of the Jerer
Valley. Stej^s were cut all the way down, and water was passed
to the surface by a chain of nine naked men, standing one
above the other, their feet resting on these steps, the full and
empty leather buckets being passed up and down from hand to
hand to an accomimniment of singing in chorus. We showed
the Abbasgiil how to do it with a large bucket and a long rope,
whereat they were greatly pleased.

The only Somdli tribes which may be said to be under
Abyssinian influence are the Geri, Bertiri, Abbasgiil, a few of
the Esa, and Malingiir. But they are all unwillingly so, and
have at various times clamoured for help from the British.
They all trade with Berbera. The Rer Amdden and the
riverine negro population of the Webbe are well disposed to
the British, though not much connected with Berbera except to
the east in the Shabeleh district, whence a large proportion of
Berbera caravans are derived.

These headmen said that the Abyssinians every now and
then came from Jig-Jiga with rifles, and did what pleased them
best ; that they killed Abbasgiil sheep and cattle for food,
entered the karias and used the huts; that they forced even
the old chiefs to hew wood and draw water, and interfered with
the women ; and that many Abbasgiil who had tried to defend
their homes had been shot down.

This tribe seemed utterly cowed, and quite unlike the war-
like and independent people we met at Milmil. I noticed very
few horses, and the tribesmen said that all their best had been
taken by the Abyssinians.

The Abbasgiil told us that, three years before our trip, the
Abyssinians came from Harar and overran all this country,
even as far as the Sheikh Ash and Rer Ali tribes ; and going
into the Rer Harun country beyond Milmil, they came back
by way of the Rer AmAden and Adan Khair to the far south,
to Imi; here they were among the Gallas and the Adone, or
riverine negro population of the Webbe Shabeleh. The
Abyssinians are said to have obtained by threats or violence a
tribute of camels, cattle, or sheep from every tribe passed
through on this far-reaching raid. One of our men stupidly
told a crowd of people at the wells that we had come to attack
Banagiis^, the commander of the Jig-Jiga outpost, and it was
not till we heard shouts of delight from the men, women, and
children collected, that we discovered this foolishness, and put
a stop to it.

An Abbasgiil dldl to whom Sheikh Mattar had given us
an Arabic letter, came to our camp. He said the Abyssinians
were at Jig-Jiga, about thirty miles in our front, and that there
were quite a hundred soldiers and a disorderly mob of Harar
^ " Wise man " or chief. people there. So, as the object of our journey was the
construction of a route map, without coming to blows with
any one, we decided to defer our visit till a more fitting
opportunity.

So far we had done three hundred miles of route in twenty-
nine days, or ten and a half miles a day including halts, all of
the road having been carefully traversed with prismatic compass,
the main points being fixed by observations of the stars with
a transit theodolite. We had travelled sixty-four miles without
water between Dagahbiir and Waror, so that between Hargeisa
and the latter place we had gone over two hundred miles of
unexplored route with only two intermediate watering-places;
yet all this country had been very fertile and subject to a con-
siderable rainfall. With a proper system of tanks, involving, of
course, a great initial outlay, combined with a steady, cultivating
population, instead of the lazy, strife-loving Somali nomads
who now own the soil, much of this tract could, I believe, be
made to rival some of the best parts of India. People who
visit only the arid sandy Maritime Plain of the low coast
country near Berbera, or see it from ships, get little idea of
the fine soil, good rainfall, and cool, healthy climate of the
interior plateaux.

About the middle of August we broke up our Waror camp
and marched to Abonsa, in the Harar Highlands, the elevation
being six thousand feet, whence a fine view was obtained over
the distant Marar Prairie to the north. On the way, at Koran,
we passed six men carrying Remington rifles, three of whom
were Abyssinians, the first we had seen. They were very civil
and shook hands. Our guide said this was a party going to
Gerlogubi, in Central OgMen, to get " tribute."

We had now gone as near to Jig-Jiga as we dared, and
proposed to return to Hargeisa to pick up the stores left with
Sheikh Mattar, and to make a fresh start for the Harar border
on the Gildessa side, hoping to be able to include Jig-Jiga in
the map if it should turn out to have been vacated by the
Abyssinians.

The whole of the country south of Waror and Abonsa was
much disturbed by a feud between the Ahmed Abdalla, Habr
Awal, and the Rer Farah, Abbasgiil. We divided our camps
at Dubbur in order to survey more ground, and my brother, in
returning to Hargeisa across the Marar Prairie, passed through
the fighting tribes, and saw many of their mounted scouts, who
were uniformly civil to him. Jilean while I struck across the
Haud bush, forty miles to the east of my brother's route.

While I was encamped on 16th August among the Ahmed
Abdalla karias at Karigri, in open jungle, a surprise was
attempted on them by the Rer Farah, Abbasgiil. A hue and
cry was raised, and the plain was soon swarming with men,
who came out of the karias with spears and shields to repulse
the attack. The enemy upon seeing this retired. The affair
was so sudden that the GerAd or Sultdn of the Ahmed Abdalla
was with his headmen drinking coffee in my camp at the time.
On the first news their horses were brought up ready saddled
from the karias, and they mounted without delay and rode
to the south, disappearing in the clouds of red dust raised by
the flocks and herds which were being driven in by the women.

We again met and formed the double camp over the wells
at Hargeisa, and during the few days we were there we had
pleasant company ; for two sportsmen's caravans — those of Col.
R. Curteis of Poona, and of Captain Harrison, 8th King's — passed
through Hargeisa on their way to the Haud hunting-grounds.

The first fifty miles from Hargeisa being perfectly safe
country, we made our fresh start on 24th August in two half-
caravans, and as the climate during this part of our wanderings
was somewhat peculiar, showing that the Haud and Marar
Prairie share in the great rainfall of the high Abyssinian plateau,
I will give a short account of the first portion of the journey,
the facts being taken from our Diary.

================================== Bartire Sultan========================================


During my interview with Banagiis^, Mahomed Ahmed,
the poor GerM or Sultan of the Bertiri Som^lis, sat in my tent
looking dejected and never daring to utter a word. It appears
his dignity had suff'ered at the hands of the Abyssinians during
the last few months, he being obliged to "trot about like a
dog " between the karias to fetch cows for the soldiers to eat.

M



162 THROUGH SOMALILAND AND ABYSSINIA chap.

The GerAd was slightly built, and had the intelligent face and
well-cut features of the best kind of Somdii, a great contrast to
the coarse-featured soldiers who were allowed to hector over
him. Despite his old, worn-out tobe he still looked dignified.
Before the arrival of these Abyssinians, who came into the
Bertiri country like a swarm of locusts when they took Harar,
the Gerdd had been a man of some repute. But the Abyssinians
took away all his power, and he is now of little consequence.

My intercourse with Banagiise depended on several inter-
preters ; he spoke Amhdric to Gabratagli, who passed it on to
my interpreter, Adan Yusuf, in Arabic, and the latter translated
into Hindustani for my benefit. By the time a sentence reached
me Banagiise was thinking of something else, so we did not make
much progress.

The Abyssinians preferred tea to coflfee; and I noticed
Banagiise rather craned at his cup, and handed it to a friend
first, suspecting poison. But my headman, Adan Yusuf, full
of tact, said quietly, ^^ Mafish khoff^' (No fear), and giving a
short laugh, he took a long draught from the cup, and filled it
again for the great man.

On 9th March, in the early morning, Banagiise sent over
Abadigal to say he was leaving for Gojar, and requesting that
I would visit him in the stockade ; so posting a sentry in camp
I took nineteen of the men in line, rode across the valley, and
drew up at the Abyssinian zerlba. Leaving most of the men
outside I entered with four, passing a sentry who saluted me
by presenting arms in Abyssinian fashion ; and walking across
the zeriba I entered Banagiis6's hut. Here I found his notables
assembled, all seated on the ground. I was invited to take my
place on a raised platform with Banagiis^, while Adan Yusuf and
the other interpreters squatted in front. Banagiis6 was polite,
but having little to say, he left Gabratagli to do all the talking.

After a somewhat embarrassing leave-taking I trotted back
to camp on my camel, and Banagiis^ issued from the stockade ;
and, followed by his army, marched over the plain towards
Gojar. Looking with my telescope from camp an hour later,
I made them out in the far distance, and it was pleasant to
have seen the last of them.

I was glad to halt at Jig-Jiga for a few days, as the plains
were dotted over with game. My men were a thoroughly good
lot of fellows, and I was particularly pleased with the way in
which they enabled me to show a bold front to Banaguse.



VI A VISIT TO RAS MAKUNAN OF HARAR, 1893 163

One day I went out into the plains with three or four men,
and found immense herds of hartebeests and Soemmerring's
gazelles ; but the day being windy, they were very shy. The
gazelles were always galloping about and starting the masses
of beisa and hartebeests. They would draw up in front of the
larger game, appearing to know that I did not want to fire at
them, sometimes giving me very easy chances. At last, seeing
no chance of the larger game, and being in want of meat, I
shot two Soemmerring's gazelles right and left, one a very good
buck with a thick winter coat ; and on the way to camp I saw
a bull hartebeest standing, as he thought, out of range, some
four hundred yards away, so I lay prone and brought him down
with a careful shot from the Martini-Henry.

Keturning to camp, I found messengers from one Farur
GerM Hirsi, a relation of the Bertiri Sultdn, who was at his
karia two miles away, and had " pains all over his body," so he
had sent his sons to call me. I gave him twenty drops of
chlorodyne and half a dozen quinine pills, one to be taken daily.
I was received with great enthusiasm by a crowd of some two
hundred of his womenfolk and male relations, all calling out
" Nahad " (Welcome). The GerAd said he would have had him-
self carried to my camp, but not while the hated Abyssinians
remained there. The elders flocked around to lay complaints
before me of the treatment they had received from the Abyssinian
invaders. They said that Banagiis6 was lazy, and did not
administer the country a bit ; that he and his mob were good
neither at fighting nor governing, and that the only thing they
could do was bullying the karias for the extraction of cattle,
which his soldiers eat raw. The Gerdd told me that ten cows
were taken last month from his karia alone. Another man,
Ibrahim Gi\ri (Rer Ali), lost seventy-six camels, two hundred
sheep, and five huts in one day; and he and his wife were
arrested and taken away by the Abyssinians towards Harar.
These are samples of the arbitrary behaviour of frontier officials.