United States or Armenia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !


We found its temperature 73o Fahr. The taste of the water was bitter and nauseous. Following the course of the Biyu Gora through two low parallel ranges of conglomerate, we entered a narrow gorge, in which lime and sandstone abound. The dip of the strata is about 45o west, the strike north and south.

After a five miles' march the travellers came to a place called Biyu Hablay; they unloaded under a tree and made a Kraal. Water was distant. Around were some courses, ending abruptly in the soft absorbing ground. Here the traveller was met by two Dulbahantas, who demanded his right to enter their lands, and insinuated that a force was gathering to oppose him.

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.

Herne, I rode out to inspect the Biyu Gora or Night-running Water. After advancing about ten miles in a south-east direction from Berberah, we entered rough and broken ground, and suddenly came upon a Fiumara about 250 yards broad.

This paste they call dakiaa.* Although we did not much like the taste of the paste, and it was very full of sand, we ate some of it as a vegetable. This is identical with the biyu of Cape York. November 19.

Returning from a toilsome climb, we found some of the Ayyal Ahmed building near the spot where Biyu Gora is absorbed, the usual small stone tower. The fact had excited attention at Berberah; the erection was intended to store grain, but the suspicious savages, the Eesa Musa, and Mikahil, who hold the land, saw in it an attempt to threaten their liberties.

These operations are completed just before the commencement of the wet season, or in the month of October. When the rains set in the biyu becomes the principal support of the Cape York and Muralug people. It does not seem to be a favourite food, and is probably eaten from sheer necessity.