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But there he was, a stern Nemesis, the moonlight shining on spear and shield, and glowing on the dark, villainous features. Guy and Canaris wheeled round and stood with drawn revolvers. The Somali clutched his spear and drew up his shield. The silence remained unbroken. One single cry and a mad horde would rush forth like bees from a hive.
The depression west of the Nile, now known as the Fayyûm, was drained of its waters, and by means of embankments transformed from a pestiferous marsh into fertile fields. The Nile was brought to it by a river-like canal, and the supply of water regulated by locks. Fresh exploring expeditions were sent to the Somali coast and elsewhere.
Many of them listened to me with more faith about food and medicines because I knew something of the Koran, and could recite their Bismillah and their call to prayer. At last we arrived at Aden, where a troop of Somali lads came on board, with their bawling voices and their necklaces and their mop-heads of mutton wool, now and then plastered with lime.
"Quick, they are coming!" cried Canaris in sudden excitement, and as he spoke a yell went up close at hand, and three or four dark figures turned the corner of the nearest slave-prison. A big Somali was in the lead, and, spying Melton, he raised his spear. "You fiend!" cried Guy, and, lifting a loose stone from the wall, he hurled it down.
Shortly thereafter, while they were circling and shouting about the thicket to prevent a charge before the Sahib's arrival, an incident occurred which proves alike the utter fearlessness and the marvellous knowledge of the game of the Somali.
Mercenaries from Mocha, Hazramaut, and Bir Hamid near Aden: they are armed with matchlock, sword, and dagger; and each receives from the governor a monthly stipend of two dollars and a half. The system of caste, which prevails in El Yemen, though not in the northern parts of Arabia, is general throughout the Somali country. The principal families of outcasts are the following.
Though highly becoming, and picturesque as the Roman toga, the Somali Tobe is by no means the most decorous of dresses: women in the towns often prefer the Arab costume, a short-sleeved robe extending to the knee, and a Futah or loin-cloth underneath. As regards the word Tobe, it signifies, in Arabic, a garment generally: the Somal call it "Maro," and the half Tobe a "Shukkah."
Our material consisted of four or five half-starved camels, about fifty donkeys with ears cropped as a mark, and their eternal accompaniments in Somali land, old women. The latter seemed to be selected for age, hideousness, and strength: all day they bore their babes smothered in hides upon their backs, and they carried heavy burdens apparently without fatigue.
When we started we had four Somali gunbearers, each of whom rose at dawn to pray. As we got up in the high altitudes, where the mornings were bitter cold, the number of suppliants dwindled down to one, and Hassan was the sole survivor. No cold or rain or early rising could cool the fierce religious ardor that burned within him.
This was a sad change of affairs from what took place six weeks before the traveller's arrival, when there had been a fall of rain, and the people spent their time revelling on milk, and sleeping all day under the shade of the trees the Somali idea of perfect happiness.
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