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I was kept at this station eight days, sometimes hearing ominous announcements of the terrible Dulbahantas, sent to frighten me by the Abban, and sometimes amusing myself in other and various ways. The Dulbahantas could not conceive my motive for wishing to travel in their land; no peddling Arab, even, had ever ventured there, so why should I desire to go?
The Mijjertaine dispersed over the eastern portions of the land, the Warsingali held the central, and the Dulbahantas the western territories.
I was now preparing to start again westward, when an order came from the Abban to my men, that no property should accompany me, excepting what little I felt disposed to part with in presents to the Dulbahantas; as an Akil, by name Husayn Hadji, the senior man present at Jid Ali, had decided, as a final measure, on seizing everything I brought with me immediately I set foot in Jid Ali.
To this the Sultan replied, that "as far as his dominions extended the traveller was perfectly at liberty to go where he liked; but as for visiting the Dulbahantas, he could not hear of or countenance it."
The other people I met here were some Dulbahantas arming for the fight. They said they were 4000 strong in cavalry, and were slaughtering sheep wholesale for provision on the road. Here a second camel was on the point of dying, when his flesh was saved from becoming carrion by a knife being passed across his throat. 21st.
Many evil rumours had preceded Lieutenant Speke, and the inland tribe professed, it was reported, to despise a people who can only threaten the coast. The Dulbahantas had been quarrelling amongst themselves for the last thirteen years, and were now determined to settle the dispute by a battle.
Yafir Pass Rhut Tug The Ruins at Kin's City Abban Apprehends Future Consequences Hyenas The Dulbahantas Camel Drivers' Tricks Briny Water Antelope-shooting Elephant-hunting Ostrich-hunting Gazelles Jealousy and Suspicions of the People Troubles from Forty Thieves Rapid Decline of Property. 4th December 1854.
The Dulbahantas would not let me see their country, as they could not see why an Englishman should wish to travel where even beggars were afraid to go; and then followed a hundred other excuses, all of which I rejected as freely as he advanced them. Then at length, Somali fashion, the true meaning of his unwelcome visit transpired.
The traveller was offered as many horses as he wanted, and a free passage to Berberah, if he would take part in the battle preparing between the two rival clans of Dulbahantas: he refused, on plea of having other engagements.
During my peregrinations at this place, I often dropped bits of paper about the jungle, little suspecting what would become of them; and, to my surprise, one day the interpreter came to me in some alarm, to say that several Dulbahantas had arrived at Bunder Gori, and were sharply canvassing amongst themselves the probable objects of my visit.
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