Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/263

 possess the seaboard, are the heirs to Egypt, have already taken the necessary steps to secure this prize, which Burton was the first Englishman to visit, in 1855. On withdrawing the Egyptian garrison they hoisted the British flag on the walls. The king of Shoa, who was also desirous to obtain this town, had not suflicient strength to struggle against such rivals.

Harrar, whose shape may be compared to that of a pear, lies on a granite hill which gradually tapers to the west. To the south Mount Hakim commands the town from a height of some 660 feet, giving birth to many streams, which water the gardens of Harrar and become lost in the marshes before reaching the Wabi, a tributary of the Indian Ocean. The numerous grottoes of Hakim are inhabited by long-tailed yellow monkeys, with thick manes. Contrasting with the scattered dwellings of other Abyssinian cities, the nine thousand five hundred terraced dwellings of Harrar, covering a space of only 120 acres, and built of calcareous rock full of vegetiible fossils, are crowded together within a rampart of stones flanked by embattled towers. The houses have few openings on the narrow, winding, steep lanes, whilst the few irregular squares usually open on the mosques; the largest public space, called the Meulatt, occupies the summit of the hill. The Harrari, nearly all merchants, are fanatic Mussulmans of the Shiah sect, like the Persians and several tribes of Southern Arabia. From these countries probably came the missionaries who converted the Somalis and Gallas to their faith, and whose descendants constitute the present population of the city. When the Harrari meet together to chew the leaves of the kat (celastrus edulis), which is as highly prized by them as by the natives of Yemen as a stimulant, they begin and end the evening with readings from the Koran and acts of thanksgiving, "because this holy plant enables us to prolong our vigils longer into the night, in order to worship the Lord."

The society of Harrar differs from the rest of the Mussulman world in the respect that is shown to women. Before the arrival of the Egyptians, the emir, alone of all the inhabitants of this country, had more than one wife, whilst divorces, so common in other Mohammedan countries, are here of rare occurrence. Besides, the women are unveiled, and sell the products of their gardens in the bazaar, the men taking on themselves all the hard work; and this town is also distinguished by its love of letters. According to Mohammed Mukhtar, all the children read and write Arabic, although it is a foreign language differing greatly from their own, which is either of Galla origin, or according to Burton and Miiller, of Semitic stock. But they write the letters vertically, instead of from right to left. They have a certain literature, and their writers do not restrict themselves to mere comments on the Koran. One of the local industries is bookbinding. Although essentially a commercial town, Harrar has scarcely any industries, excepting that of its highly prized potteries, and its manufactories of togas, the black robes and mantillas worn by the women, and the red garments reserved for the young girls. Most of the other manufactured articles are imported from Arabia, and the chaplets worn by the Harrar people are made by immigrants from Hadramaut. Since the people have exchanged their independent state for the Egyptian ride, they have lost much of