society, we declined such liberality, and my companions, I believe,
declared that it would be "next time:"--on all such occasions I make a
point of leaving the room, since for one thing given at least five are
promised on oath. Raghe warned us seriously to prepare for dangers and
disasters, and this seemed to be the general opinion of Zayla, whose timid
citizens determined that we were tired of our lives. The cold had driven
the Nomads from the hills to the warm maritime Plains [34], we should
therefore traverse a populous region; and, as the End of Time aptly
observed, "Man eats you up, the Desert does not." Moreover this year the
Ayyal Nuh Ismail, a clan of the Habr Awal tribe, is "out," and has been
successful against the Eesa, who generally are the better men. They sweep
the country in Kaum or Commandos [35], numbering from twenty to two
hundred troopers, armed with assegai, dagger, and shield, and carrying a
water skin and dried meat for a three days' ride, sufficient to scour the
length of the low land. The honest fellows are not so anxious to plunder
as to ennoble themselves by taking life: every man hangs to his saddle bow
an ostrich [36] feather,--emblem of truth,--and the moment his javelin has
drawn blood, he sticks it into his tufty pole with as much satisfaction as
we feel when attaching a medal to our shell-jackets. It is by no means
necessary to slay the foe in fair combat: Spartan-like, treachery is
preferred to stand-up fighting; and you may measure their ideas of honor,
by the fact that women are murdered in cold blood, as by the Amazulus,
with the hope that the unborn child may prove a male. The hero carries
home the trophy of his prowess [37], and his wife, springing from her
tent, utters a long shrill scream of joy, a preliminary to boasting of her
man's valour, and bitterly taunting the other possessors of _noirs
faineants_: the derided ladies abuse their lords with peculiar virulence,
and the lords fall into paroxysms of envy, hatred, and malice. During my
short stay at Zayla six or seven murders were committed close to the
walls: the Abban brought news, a few hours before our departure, that two