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Updated: May 31, 2025
The daughter of an Indian woman is a young person of fast propensities, her chocolate- coloured skin, long hair, and parrot-like profile are much admired by the elegants of Zayla; and she coquettes by combing, dancing, singing, and slapping the slave-girls, whenever an adorer may be looking. We sober- minded men, seeing her, quote the well-known lines
At present the people of Zayla are all orthodox Sunnites. Fish, as will be seen in these pages, is no longer a favourite article of diet. Bruce, book 8. Hence the origin of the trade between Africa and Cutch, which continues uninterrupted to the present time.
These, however, defended themselves gallantly, and would have crowned the son of Abd el Rahman, had he not in fear declined the dignity; they then drew their pay, and marched with all the honors of war to Zayla. Shortly before our arrival, the dozen of petty Arab pedlars at Harar, treacherous intriguers, like all their dangerous race, had been plotting against the Amir.
At Zayla almost all quarrels are connected with women; the old bewitch in one way, the young in another, and both are equally maligned. "Wit in a woman," exclaims one man, "is a habit of running away in a dromedary." "Allah," declares another, "made woman of a crooked bone; he who would straighten her, breaketh her."
Before leaving Zayla, I must not neglect a short description of its inhabitants, and the remarkable Somal races around it. Eastern Africa, like Arabia, presents a population composed of three markedly distinct races.
Nothing could be duller than this assemblee: pipes and coffee are here unknown; and there is nothing in the East to act substitute for them. The governor of Zayla, El Hajj Sharmarkay bin Ali Salih, is rather a remarkable man. He is sixteenth, according to his own account, in descent from Ishak el Hazrami , the saintly founder of the great Gerhajis and Awal tribes.
Always attendant upon these dames is Yusuf, a Zayla lad who, being one-eyed, was pitilessly named by my companions the "Kalendar;" he prays frequently, is strict in his morals, and has conceived, like Mrs. Brownrigg, so exalted an idea of discipline, that, but for our influence, he certainly would have beaten the two female 'prentices to death. They hate him therefore, and he knows it.
To hear his projects, you would fancy them the offspring of a brain in the prime of youth: in order to carry them out he would even assist in suppressing the profitable slave-trade. After half an hour's visit I was led by the Hajj through the streets of Zayla , to one of his substantial houses of coralline and mud plastered over with glaring whitewash.
The singular is Dankali, the plural Danakil: both words are Arabic, the vernacular name being "Afar" or "Afer," the Somali "Afarnimun." The word is pronounced like the Latin "Afer," an African. Occasionally at Zayla where all animals are expensive Dankali camels may be bought: though small, they resist hardship and fatigue better than the other kinds. A fair price would be about ten dollars.
Near it are some large tamarisks and the wild henna of the Somali country, which supplies a sweet-smelling flower, but is valueless as a dye. A thick hedge of thorn-trees surrounds the only cultivated ground near Zayla: as Ibn Said declared in old times, "the people have no gardens, and know nothing of fruits."
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