United States or Saint Vincent and the Grenadines ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Before I had time to think, however, though my senses were all on the alert from hearing the dog's bark, I saw that the naval officer whom we had rushed up to help at Mr Chisholm's instigation, was engaged in a fierce hand-to-hand fight with two Arabs, one of whom, a tall, lean Somali, with a peculiar sort of turban round his head, unlike any of those sported by the rest of the gang, I was certain was no less a personage than the man, or `sheik' as he was called, Abdalah, the leader of the Somalis.
The following "observations accompanying a substance procured near Aden, and used by the Somalis to poison their arrows," by F. S. Arnott, Esq., M.D., will be read with interest. "In February 1853, Dr. Arnott had forwarded to him a watery extract prepared from the root of a tree, described as 'Wabie, a toxicodendron from the Somali country on the Habr Gerhajis range of the Goolies mountains.
This description, however, applies to the Somali in his own land. When he comes over to Aden he takes shame at his nakedness, dons the Arab's gown and trousers, and becomes the merchant complete. In consequence of the poorness of their land, almost all the Somali are wandering pastorals, which of itself is enough to account for their turbulent natures.
The site and remains of a village; 3. A hole in the ground, denoting a lime-kiln; 4. A cemetery; and, 5. The ground-lines of a fort. This certainly showed a degree of advancement beyond what the Somali now enjoy, inasmuch as they have no buildings in the interior, though that does not say much for the ancients.
He was a Somali from the Northwest coast, dusky brown, with the regular clear-cut features of a Greek marble god. His dress was of neat khaki, and he looked down on savages; but, also, as with all the dark-skinned races, up to his white master. Mahomet was with me during all my African stay, and tested out nobly. As yet, of course, I did not know him. "Chakula taiari," said he. That is Swahili.
Of the origin of the cairns I could not gain any information, though it struck me as curious I should find them in the first country we had entered governed by the Wahuma, as I formerly saw the same thing in the Somali country, which doubtless, in earlier days, was governed by a branch of the Abyssinians.
The number of these idlers increased as we approached Harar, the Alma Mater of Somali land: the people seldom listen to their advice, but on this occasion Ao Samattar succeeded in persuading the valiant Beuh that the danger was visionary.
This is the celebrated Waba, which produces the Somali Wabayo, a poison applied to darts and arrows.
One Salimayn, a black slave from the Sawahil , now secretary to the Hajj, reads our fortunes in the rosary. The "fal" , as it is called, acts a prominent part in Somali life. Some men are celebrated for accuracy of prediction; and in times of danger, when the human mind is ever open to the "fooleries of faith," perpetual reference is made to their art.
In the small, self-contained, self-supporting world of the Reformatory, it was Moussa Isa against the World. And against the World he stood up. It had to learn the difference between a Somali and a Hubshi at any cost the cost of Moussa's life included.
Word Of The Day