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In view of the circumstances, and for their own good, we refused. Another man once insisted on purchasing a cake of violet-scented soap for a rupee. Their chief idea of a wild time in Nairobi, after return from a long safari, is to SIT IN A CHAIR and drink tea. For this they pay exorbitantly at the Somali so-called "hotels." It is a strange sight.
Finally, the Dayrah Jahi is when the magnetic needle points due north. "Foyst" and "buss," are the names applied by old travellers to the half-decked vessels of these seas. Holcus Sorghum, the common grain of Africa and Arabia: the Somali call it Hirad; the people of Yemen, Taam. The Somal being a people of less nervous temperament than the Arabs and Indians, do not fear the moonlight.
This animal swarms throughout the Somali country, prowls about the camps all night, dogs travellers, and devours every thing he can find, at times pulling down children and camels, and when violently pressed by hunger, men.
We halted a day at Gudingaras, wishing to see the migration of a tribe. Before dawn, on the 30th November, the Somali Stentor proclaimed from the ridge-top, "Fetch your camels! Load your goods! We march!" About 8 A.M. we started in the rear. The spectacle was novel to me.
They carry no wool their coat feels just like a fox-terrier's but they have more meat on them than three average goats, and the huge pendulous flap of fat which does duty as a tail is a delicacy to make a Somali mouth water or a European gorge rise. The only serious occupation a buck Somali will permit himself is to sit under a tree and watch his grazing flocks.
The reason of this was, that big men in this country, to keep up their dignity, have several names, and thus mystify the traveller. I then proceeded along the shore of the lake in an easterly direction, and on the way shot a number of red Egyptian geese, which were very numerous; they are the same sort here as I once saw in the Somali country.
For a second or two they seemed all of a heap, like a covey of frightened partridges; and then, getting their tacks aboard as smartly as if they were English seamen and not rascally Somali Arabs, they hauled their wind and made in for the shore, thinking, no doubt, `Old Nick' was after them.
Either end of a moldy-green leather thong had been fastened to the two front paws for a shoulder-baldric. When new, Rand thought, it must have given its wearer a really distinctive aroma, even for Africa. He drew the blade gingerly, looked at it, and sheathed it with caution. "East African; Danakil, or Somali, or something like that," he commented.
Beauty must be the first law of life to the sex that has not the privilege of choosing. Under the circumstances, it is surprising how much of plainness women have preserved. Possibly because of the extraordinary directions which beauty culture may take. Burton asserts that the Somali choose wives by ranging the women in line for inspection; she wins a husband of note who projects farthest a tergo.
"'Slay me and have done. Then my brother gave him the name by which he was known ever after, saying: "'Why should I slay thee, Ibrahim, the Weeper? and he produced the bottle and held it above that villain's face. "His screams were music to me, and in the joy of his black heart Moussa Isa burst into some strange chant in his own Somali tongue.
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