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This article, together with slaves, forms the staple commerce between Berberah and Muscat. In Arabia, men dye with it their cotton shirts, women and children use it to stain the skin a bright yellow; besides the purpose of a cosmetic, it also serves as a preservative against cold. When Wars is cheap at Harar, a pound may be bought for a quarter of a dollar.
On the 5th February 1855, taking leave of my comrades, I went on board El Kasab or the Reed such was the ill-omened name of our cranky craft to the undisguised satisfaction of the Hammal, Long Guled, and the End of Time, who could scarcely believe in their departure from Berberah with sound skins.
Men, women, and children appeared in crowds, bringing milk and ghee, meat and water, several of the elders remembered having seen me at Berberah , and the blear-eyed maidens, who were in no wise shy, insisted upon admiring the white stranger. Feeling somewhat restored by repose, I started the next day, "with a tail on" to inspect the ruins of Aububah.
The Elders of the Habr Awal, I have since been informed, falsely asserted that they repeatedly urged us, with warnings of danger, to leave Berberah at the end of the fair, but that we positively refused compliance, for other reasons. The facts of the case are those stated in the text. They prefer travelling during the monsoon, on account of the abundance of water.
Our fate was probably decided by the arrival of a youth of the Ayyal Gedid clan, who reported that three brothers had landed in the Somali country, that two of them were anxiously awaiting at Berberah the return of the third from Harar, and that, though dressed like Moslems, they were really Englishmen in government employ.
Already I had been delayed ten days after the appointed time, my comrades at Berberah would be apprehensive of accidents, and although starting from Wilensi we had resolved to reach the coast within the fortnight, a month's march was in clear prospect.
The Donkey led us slowly and cautiously round the southern quarter of the sleeping town, through bone heaps and jackals tearing their unsavoury prey: at last he marched straight into the quarter appropriated to the Ayyal Gedid our protectors. Anxiously I inquired if my comrades had left Berberah, and heard with delight that they awaited me there.
But we wished to witness the close of the Berberah fair, and we expected instruments and other necessaries by the mid-April mail from Europe. About 8 P.M., on the 9th April, a shower, accompanied by thunder and lightning, came up from the southern hills, where rain had been falling for some days, and gave notice that the Gugi or Somali monsoon had begun.
The ancient capital of Hadiyah, called by the citizens "Harar Gay," by the Somal "Adari," by the Gallas "Adaray" and by the Arabs and ourselves "Harar," lies, according to my dead reckoning, 220o S.W. of, and 175 statute miles from, Zayla 257o W. of, and 219 miles distant from, Berberah. This would place it in 9o 20' N. lat. and 42o 17' E. long.
Some years ago a French lady landed at Berberah: her white face, according to the End of Time, made every man hate his wife and every wife hate herself. I know not who the fair dame was: her charms and black silk dress, however, have made a lasting impression upon the Somali heart; from the coast to Harar she is still remembered with rapture.
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