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He judges civil and religious causes in person, but he allows them with little interference to be settled by the Kazi, Abd el Rahman bin Umar el Harari: the latter, though a highly respectable person, is seldom troubled; rapid decision being the general predilection. The punishments, when money forms no part of them, are mostly according to Koranic code.
He was a small black man, long-headed and long-backed, with remarkably prominent eyes, a bulging brow, nose pertly turned up, and lean jaws almost unconscious of beard. He knew the Arabic, Somali, Galla, and Harari languages, and his acuteness was such, that I found no difficulty in what usually proves the hardest task, extracting the grammatical forms.
I met at Wilensi an old Harari, whose gardens and property had all been escheated, because his son fled from justice, after slaying a man. The Amir is said to have large hoards of silver, coffee, and ivory: my attendant the Hammal was once admitted into the inner palace, where he saw huge boxes of ancient fashion supposed to contain dollars.
The Gerad confessed fear of his Harari kinsman, and owned that he had lost all his villages in the immediate neighbourhood of the city. I asked him point- blank to escort us: he as frankly replied that it was impossible. The request was lowered, we begged him to accompany us as far as the frontier: he professed inability to do so, but promised to send his eldest son, Sherwa.
James, our guide, a blear-eyed, surly-faced, angry-voiced fellow, made signs none of us understanding his Harari to dismount. We did so. He then began to trot, and roared out apparently that we must do the same.
The Harari Tobe consists of a double length of eleven cubits by two in breadth, with a border of bright scarlet, and the average value of a good article, even in the city, is eight dollars. They are made of the fine long-stapled cotton, which grows plentifully upon these hills, and are soft as silk, whilst their warmth admirably adapts them for winter wear.
They are now destroyed by opening the gates in the evening, enticing in the animals by slaughtering cattle, and closing the doors upon them, when they are safely speared. The following are the names of the gates in Harari and Somali: Eastward. North. West. Asmadim Bari or Hamaraisa. South. Badro Bari or Bab Bida. South East. Sukutal Bari or Bisidimo.
The Harari hold foreigners in especial hate and contempt, and divide them into two orders, Arabs and Somal. The latter, though nearly one third of the population, or 2500 souls, are, to use their own phrase, cheap as dust: their natural timidity is increased by the show of pomp and power, whilst the word "prison" gives them the horrors.
A Somali was despatched to the city under orders to load an ass with onions, tobacco, spices, wooden platters, and Karanji , which our penniless condition had prevented our purchasing. I spent the time collecting a vocabulary of the Harari tongue under the auspices of Mad Said and All the poet, a Somali educated at the Alma Mater.
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