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During these three days I visited a ruined musjid and a cemetery, which, though much resembling the one at Rhut in every respect, was said to be of more recent origin, and built by Mohammedans.
Hassan had not come with the ponies he went after from Rhut Tug; I must therefore, before advancing, send back to the farther frontier of the Warsingali to purchase, by bills on Aden, five ponies at thirty dollars a-head, to be afterwards given away in presents to chiefs on the road for allowing me to pass through their territories, and this, at a minimum calculation, would occupy a fortnight's time, and even then I should have to go single-handed, without a servant, instrument, or article of any bulk with me.
Rhut is the most favoured spot in the Warsingali dominions, and had been loudly lauded by my followers; but all I could find were a few trees larger than the ordinary acacias, a symptom of grass having grown there in more favoured times when rain had fallen, a few puddles of water in the bed of the nullah, and one flock of sheep to keep the place alive. 9th. Halt.
At 9 A.M. we were again in motion on our westward course, rising by a gentle incline to about half-way between Rhut Tug and a second Wadi Nogal farther on, called Yubbe Tug. Here, at the water-parting between these two large watercourses, was the tomb of the great founder of these mighty nations, Darud bin Ismail, and an excavated tumulus.
After walking five miles, we arrived at our destination, not far from a well, and made a ring-fence of prickly boughs. Here for the last time I boiled the thermometer, to ascertain the altitude of the plateau along my line of march, and found its average height was 3913 feet: the minimum, at Rhut Tug, being 3077 feet and the maximum, at Yubbe Tug, 4498 feet.
My kit was now so much diminished that we all marched together down a broad shallow valley south-eastward, in which meandered a nullah, called Rhut Tug, the first wadi I came upon in Nogal. The distance accomplished was eight miles when we put up in the Kraal of Rhut; for, as I have said before, there were no villages or permanent habitations in the interior of the Nogal country.
We then got under way, and travelled westward, bidding Rhut Tug adieu, but every one was stiff and formal. Sumunter had not confessed contrition, and I had not committed myself to saying that I would hush the matter up, assuring him that in duty as a public officer I could not, that I was bound to report every circumstance, though privately I promised a pardon as before.
Again these little enclosed plains sank in gentle gradation to their centres, where nullahs, like the one I was encamped upon, drained the land and refuse debris to the south and eastward, possibly to join eventually the Rhut Tug. 12th.
Yafir Pass Rhut Tug The Ruins at Kin's City Abban Apprehends Future Consequences Hyenas The Dulbahantas Camel Drivers' Tricks Briny Water Antelope-shooting Elephant-hunting Ostrich-hunting Gazelles Jealousy and Suspicions of the People Troubles from Forty Thieves Rapid Decline of Property. 4th December 1854.
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