Part 21 (1/2)

4 Miskal ” ” 1 Wakiyah (ounce).

At Harar twenty-two plantains (the only small change) = one Mahallak, twenty-two Mahallaks = one Ashrafi (now a nominal coin,) and three Ashrafi = one dollar.

Lieut. Cruttenden remarks, ”The Ashrafi stamped at the Harar mint is a coin peculiar to the place. It is of silver and the twenty-second part of a dollar. The only specimen I have been able to procure bore the date of 910 of the Hagira, with the name of the Amir on one side, and, on its reverse, 'La Ilaha ill 'Allah.'” This traveller adds in a note, ”the value of the Ashrafi changes with each successive ruler. In the reign of Emir Abd el Shukoor, some 200 years ago, it was of gold.” At present the Ashrafi, as I have said above, is a fict.i.tious medium used in accounts.

[32] An old story is told of the Amir Abubakr, that during one of his nocturnal excursions, he heard three of his subjects talking treason, and coveting his food, his wife, and his throne. He sent for them next morning, filled the first with good things, and bastinadoed him for not eating more, flogged the second severely for being unable to describe the difference between his own wife and the princess, and put the third to death.

[33] El Makrizi informs us that in his day Hadiyah supplied the East with black Eunuchs, although the infamous trade was expressly forbidden by the Emperor of Abyssinia.

[33] The Arusi Gallas are generally driven direct from Ugadayn to Berberah.

[34] ”If you want a brother (in arms),” says the Eastern proverb, ”buy a Nubian, if you would be rich, an Abyssinian, and if you require an a.s.s, a Sawahili (negro).” Formerly a small load of salt bought a boy in Southern Abyssinia, many of them, however, died on their way to the coast.

[35] The Firman lately issued by the Sultan and forwarded to the Pasha of Jeddah for the Kaimakan and the Kazi of Mecca, has lately caused a kind of revolution in Western Arabia. The Ulema and the inhabitants denounced the rescript as opposed to the Koran, and forced the magistrate to take sanctuary. The Kaimakan came to his a.s.sistance with Turkish troops, the latter, however, were soon pressed back into their fort. At this time, the Sherif Abd el Muttalib arrived at Meccah, from Taif, and almost simultaneously Res.h.i.+d Pasha came from Constantinople with orders to seize him, send him to the capital, and appoint the Sherif n.a.z.ir to act until the nomination of a successor, the state prisoner Mohammed bin Aun.

The tumult redoubled. The people attributing the rescript to the English and French Consuls of Jeddah, insisted upon pulling down their flags. The Pasha took them under his protection, and on the 14th January, 1856, the ”Queen” steamer was despatched from Bombay, with orders to a.s.sist the government and to suppress the contest.

[36] This weight, as usual in the East, varies at every port. At Aden the Farasilah is 27 lbs., at Zayla 20 lbs., and at Berberah 35 lbs.

[37] See Chap. iii. El Makrizi, describing the kingdom of Zayla, uses the Harari not the Arabic term; he remarks that it is unknown to Egypt and Syria, and compares its leaf to that of the orange.

[38] In conversational Arabic ”we” is used without affectation for ”I.”

[39] The Shaykh himself gave me this information. As a rule it is most imprudent for Europeans holding high official positions in these barbarous regions, to live as they do, unarmed and unattended. The appearance of utter security may impose, where strong motives for a.s.sa.s.sination are wanting. At the same time the practice has occasioned many losses which singly, to use an Indian statesman's phrase, would have ”dimmed a victory.”

[40] In the best coffee countries, Harar and Yemen, the berry is reserved for exportation. The Southern Arabs use for economy and health--the bean being considered heating--the Kishr or follicle. This in Harar is a woman's drink. The men considering the berry too dry and heating for their arid atmosphere, toast the leaf on a girdle, pound it and prepare an infusion which they declare to be most wholesome, but which certainly suggests weak senna. The boiled coffee-leaf has been tried and approved of in England; we omit, however, to toast it.

[41] In Harar a horse or a mule is never lost, whereas an a.s.s straying from home is rarely seen again.

[42] This is the Abyssinian ”Tej,” a word so strange to European organs, that some authors write it ”Zatsh.” At Harar it is made of honey dissolved in about fifteen parts of hot water, strained and fermented for seven days with the bark of a tree called Kudidah; when the operation is to be hurried, the vessel is placed near the fire. Ignorant Africa can ferment, not distil, yet it must be owned she is skilful in her rude art. Every traveller has praised the honey-wine of the Highlands, and some have not scrupled to prefer it to champagne. It exhilarates, excites and acts as an aphrodisiac; the consequence is, that at Harar all men, pagans and sages, priests and rulers, drink it.

[43] The Caliph Umar is said to have smiled once and wept once. The smile was caused by the recollection of his having eaten his paste-G.o.ds in the days of ignorance. The tear was shed in remembrance of having buried alive, as was customary amongst the Pagan Arabs, his infant daughter, who, whilst he placed her in the grave, with her little hands beat the dust off his beard and garment.

[44] The Eastern parent of Free-Masonry.

[45] Two celebrated Arabic dictionaries.

CHAP. IX.

A RIDE TO BERBERAH.

Long before dawn on Sat.u.r.day, the 13th January, the mules were saddled, bridled, and charged with our scanty luggage. After a hasty breakfast we shook hands with old Sultan the Eunuch, mounted and p.r.i.c.ked through the desert streets. Suddenly my weakness and sickness left me--so potent a drug is joy!--and, as we pa.s.sed the gates loudly salaming to the warders, who were crouching over the fire inside, a weight of care and anxiety fell from me like a cloak of lead.

Yet, dear L., I had time, on the top of my mule for musing upon how melancholy a thing is success. Whilst failure inspirits a man, attainment reads the sad prosy lesson that all our glories

”Are shadows, not substantial things.”

Truly said the sayer, ”disappointment is the salt of life”--a salutary bitter which strengthens the mind for fresh exertion, and gives a double value to the prize.

This shade of melancholy soon pa.s.sed away. The morning was beautiful. A cloudless sky, then untarnished by sun, tinged with reflected blue the mist-crowns of the distant peaks and the smoke wreaths hanging round the sleeping villages, and the air was a cordial after the rank atmosphere of the town. The dew hung in large diamonds from the coffee trees, the spur- fowl crew blithely in the bushes by the way-side:--briefly, never did the face of Nature appear to me so truly lovely.