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Around the great ring on to which the Grand Stand looked, Arab, Pathan, and other heathen raged furiously together and imagined many vain things. Among them unobtrusively moved a Somali who listened carefully to conversations, noted speakers, and appeared to be collecting impressions as to the state of public opinion and of private opinion.
"Taking me and Mir Abdul Haq and Mir Hussein Ali and many men and servants, among whom was the body-servant, the boy Moussa Isa Somali, he set forth, a little depressed that we heard not the cry of the partridge in the fields of Mekran Kot as we started not exactly a bad omen, but lacking a good one.
The weather continuing the same, on the 26th I forced the Nahkoda, much against his will, on at night, as during the darker hours the winds were much stronger, and by this means we arrived at our destination, Bunder Gori on the Warsingali frontier, at sundown on the 27th of October. I had now seen the Somali shore, and must confess I was much disappointed.
They said that on that occasion they had not only beaten the Habr Teljala, but had seized one of their vessels; and that prior to this rupture they had enjoyed paramount superiority over all the tribes of the Somali; but now that they were forbidden to transport soldiers or make reprisals on the sea, every tribe was on an equality with them.
Two other Indian officers, Lieutenants Stroyan and Heme, also joined the expedition. The Somali are Mahommedans, descendants of Arabs who have intermarried with negroes. They are a savage, treacherous race, noted for their cheating and lying propensities; in figure tall, slender, light, and agile, scarcely darker than Arabs, with thin lips and noses, but woolly heads like negroes.
The last is a peculiarly Somali name, meaning "one who sees no harm." Shar-ma-arkay. Not the hereditary chieftainship of the Habr Gerhajis, which belongs to a particular clan. The following is a copy of the document:
The gum of this tree is especially valued by the Somali women for fumigating purposes, which they apply to their bodies by sitting over it, when ignited, in the same manner as Cashmeres sit over their little charcoal-pots to keep themselves warm when resting on their travels.
They were importunate beggars, but a pinch of snuff or a handful of tobacco always made us friends: they begged me to settle amongst them, they offered me sundry wives and, the Somali Bedouin, unlike the Arab, readily affiliates strangers to his tribe they declared that after a few days' residence, I should become one of themselves.
Hassan was a Somali, strictly honest and faithful. He had the Somali's love of a rupee, and there was no danger or hardship that he would not undergo in the hope of backsheesh. It is the African custom to backsheesh everybody when a lion is killed, so consequently the Somalis were always looking for lions. Perhaps he also prayed for them each morning.
There frequently is no time for turning around, and so the first gunbearer is at your elbow with the barrel of one rifle pressed against your right leg that you may know that he is there. Sometimes they run away, but the Somali gunbearers are the most fearless and trustworthy, and seldom desert in time of need.
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