Page:A voyage to Abyssinia (Salt).djvu/153

 cut off, and hung up in the house of the chief, to serve as a rude kind of calendar to mark the event.

It is a singular fact, worthy of particular notice, that the Danákil, as well as the Adaiel and Somauli, entertain a peculiar prejudice against common fowls, the flesh of which is held among them in a kind of abhorrence: this may perhaps lead to the idea of these tribes being sprung from an Egyptian origin. I remarked also another circumstance, strongly in favour of this conjecture, which is that of their tombs being covered with monuments of a pyramidal structure. We had remained a considerable time on the coast before I could get a sight of their burying grounds; but at length I accidentally discovered one in a secluded spot, between the two hills, termed in our chart the Sister Hills. The tombs were rudely constructed, in the exact shape of pyramids, with stones cemented together with chunam, and some of these piles were entirely covered with the latter material: the base of one of them occupying a space of full ten feet square. A vocabulary of the Dankali language will be found in the Appendix. (Vide No. I.)

The thermometer during our stay at Amphila generally stood at noon as high as at 77-8 and 9° the shade, with the wind from about E. to E. S. E.; but in the latter part of December, with a "shummall," or "northwest wind," the thermometer fell as low as 72°, at which time we had cloudy weather, and occasional showers, while on shore the rain appeared to be almost incessant. Previously to the approach of a shummall, the air became always extremely heavy, and the atmosphere hazy, from being apparently loaded with sand, which the force of partial gusts of wind had carried up in the shape of pillars, and these were constantly observed sweeping in different directions across the plain. I never heard of any accident occurring from these "moving pillars of sand," nor did the natives appear to entertain any particular dread of them. I have myself been enveloped in a portion of one of them, the effects of which were exceedingly unpleasant, making the whole of my skin feel parched and dry; but I experienced no actual suffering from it, either at the time or afterwards.