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On the next day, however, he became more tractable, and before reaching Berberah he showed himself, in consequence of some old blood feud, more anxious even than ourselves to avoid villages. Remounting, under the guidance of the Donkey, we resumed our east-ward course.
That nation of savages, however, was never capable of constructing a scientific aqueduct. I therefore prefer attributing these remains at Berberah to the Ottomans, who, after the conquest of Aden by Sulayman Pacha in A.D. 1538, held Yemen for about 100 years, and as auxiliaries of the King of Adel, penetrated as far as Abyssinia.
These animals are tolerably tame in the morning, as day advances their apprehension of man increases. Lieut. Cruttenden in considering what nation could have constructed, and at what period the commerce of Berberah warranted, so costly an undertaking, is disposed to attribute it to the Persian conquerors of Aden in the days of Anushirwan.
It is said that the Amir withholds this valuable article, fearing to glut the Berberah market: he has also forbidden the Harash, or coffee cultivators, to travel lest the art of tending the tree be lost.
Cowhides pay half-a-dollar each, sheep and goat's skins four pice, and ghee about one per cent. Lieut. Herne calculates that the total money dues during the Fair-season amount to 2000 dollars, and that, in the present reduced state of Berberah, not more than 10,000l. worth of merchandize is sold. This estimate the natives of the place declare to be considerably under the mark.
They demanded money in too authoritative a tone before allowing us to visit the wells, which form their principal wealth. Resolved not to risk a quarrel so near Berberah, I was returning to moralise upon the fate of Burckhardt after a successful pilgrimage refused admittance to Aaron's tomb at Sinai when a Bedouin ran to tell us that we might wander where we pleased.
Lieutenant Speke justly remarks that, on account of the rough way in which they are brought up, the Somal would become excellent policemen; they should, however, be separated from their own people, and doubtless the second generation might be trained into courage. At Biyu Hablay Lieutenant Speke, finding time as well as means deficient, dropped all idea of marching to Berberah.
The greatest danger we had run was from the Gerad Adan, a fact of which I was not aware till some time after my return to Berberah: he had always been plotting an avanie which, if attempted, would have cost him dear, but at the same time would certainly have proved fatal to us. Noon arrived, but no cavalry.
He whispered anxiously to make no noise lest enemies might arise, that my other attendants had protectors at Berberah, but that he, the hated and feared, as the locum tenens of Sharmarkay, the great bete noire, depended wholly upon my defence.
Goat's flesh is good, and the black-faced Berberah sheep, after the rains, is, here as elsewhere, delicious. The staff of life is holcus.
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