wars of tribes, everybody helps himself to his enemy's cattle in the
best way he can, and men formerly poor now suddenly become rich, which
gives a zest to the extension of the contest nothing else could
produce. Indeed, the poorer orders of Somali are only too glad to have
a good pretext for a fight, as a means of bettering their condition,
by adding a few more head of cattle to their stock. Were this not the
case, there would be no fighting whatever, as the sultan would be
powerless to raise an army against the inclination of the people. War
only ceases when both sides become exhausted, and withdraw as by
mutual consent. The great object in these encounters is to steal away
as many cattle as possible without risk of person, and such feats are
boasted of with rapture by those returning home with any prize. In the
administration of justice they consult the Mosaic law, as given in the
Koran, taking life for life, and kind for kind.

The northern Somali have no permanent villages in the interior of the
country, as the ground is not cultivated; but they scatter about,
constantly moving with their flocks and herds to any place within
their limited districts where water is to be found, and erect
temporary huts of sticks, covered with grass mats; or, when
favourable, they throw up loose stone walls like the dykes in
Scotland. But on the sea-coast, wherever there are harbours for
shipping, they build permanent villages on a very primitive scale.
These are composed of square mat walls, supported by sticks, and all
huddled together, and partitioned off for the accommodation of the
various families, near which there are usually one or more square
box-shaped stone buildings, the property of the chief of the place,
which are designated forts, though there is nothing in their artless
construction to deserve this name. They are all composed of blocks of
coralline, cemented together with mortar extracted from the same