Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/476

 390 SOUTH AND EAST AFBICA. OS trich and herds of wild asses, gazelles, and antelopes, amongst which Menges has discovered a new species, the cwrious " harnessed " antelope, with a combination of white striiws and spots on a greyish brown ground, somewhat resembling the trappings of u horse. Iluros and other rodents are common on the coastlands, but the lively macromrluhn, which differ from the shrew chiefly in the greater length of the hind legs, and which French writers call the rat a trompe {Macroscelides Rozeti), keep chiefly to the dry rocky places, looking at a distance like squirrels, And continually hopping about, after the manner of kangaroos, in search of insects and other ninull animals. Amongst the li/ard tribe occurs the remarkable ogama Rueppvllii, which clianges its colour when an attempt is made to seize it. Another curious member of this fumilv is tlie Vromai^tix batillifcnts, which hides in the fissures of the rocks, presenting to its pursuer nothing but its tail armed with sharp spines. Indigenous in Somali Land is the Acnjliiinn rultitrinmn, the finest variety of the guinea-fowl, which has the head of a vulture and many of its habits, for it feeds not only on torn but also on insects and carrion. The naturalists who have vi.siied this region, notably Von der Decken and Ut'voil, liavc discovered several new species of molluscs and insects, as well as a new termite, which builds tall nests in the form of obelisks. In the neighbouring waters the fishermen ca])ture many sharks, whose flesh is prepared for the Zanzibar market and the tins exported to China, where this gelatinous article of diet is highly esteemed as a choice delicacy. Inhabitants. The inhabitants of Somali Land were known to the ancient Egyptians under the general name of Tunt. In one of the temples at Thebes, Deir-el-Bahari, Di'imisten and .Mariette have diircovercd some remarkable mural paintings, which represent the payment of tiibute in gums, frankincense, and myrrh, offered to the queen of the Egy])tians by the people of Punt. The figures themselves wear the same garb and have the sjme general appearance as the present Somali people. At that time they had already a knowledge of metals, so that the stone implements discovered in many parts of the country must belong to a prehistoric period, at least three thousand si. hundred, and more probably over five thousand years, removed from our days. Nevertheless, most of the Somali, ignorant of their true descent, and as zealous Mussulmans an.xious to include some saint of Islam amongst their ancestry, juitend to be sprung from a family of Koreish Arabs. Like their Danakil neigh- bours, they even claim close kinship with the Prophet's family, and point to a house still e.xisting in Mecca which was the residence of their forefathers. According to one tradition, their direct progenitor was a certain Sherif Ishak ben Ahmed, who orosseil over from Hadramaut with forty followers about five hundred years ago. liut other legends go much farther back, tracing their descent from the Himyarite chiefs, Sanhuj and Sauiamah, said to have been contemporaries of a mythical king