Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/477

 INILVBITANTS OF SOMALI LANT). 891 Afrikus, who is supposed to have conquered the wbo'e continont and given it hiii name about the year 400 of the new era. I'^nfortunutely the ruins discovered in various parts of the country are so 8ha])e- less that it is no longer p )8>il)le to tell from the style of architecture whether they are to be attributed to Egyptian, Assyrian, Persian, or other ancient builders. A thousand different objects, however, have also been found which attest a long, standing commercial intercourse with all the maritime regions connected by the yearly alternating trade- winds. Amongst these objects are glazed earthenware, enamels, and glass, stone and alabaster vases, pearls, and other gems, which clearly show that the ancestors of the Somali people maintained e.xtensive relations with the flourishing and industrious nations of the East. The sudden destruction of any present trading place on the seaboard would not reveal to future treasure-seekers amongst its debris so many remarkable objects as have been found amid the ruins of the cities overthrown two or three thousand years ago. Numerous barrows, or sepulchral mounds, dating from those remote times, still exist in certain parts of the country. They generally consist of pyramidal piles of stones interspersed with shells, fishbones, and implements belonging to the successive stone, bronze, and iron ages. The graves that have been rifled in the neighbourhood of Zeila appear to be of Galla origin, and the natives of this district point to the site of an " immense city," which is also said to have belonged to the Galla people. Yet no settlements of any Galla tribes are now found nearer to Zeila than the Harrar territory, which is distant about 120 miles to the south. Doubtless extensive migrations and shiftings of populations here took place in fonner times, and similar changes and displaceuK n s, especially of the nomad communities, are still continued in our days as actively as ever. The Somali. There can be no doubt that, taken collectively, the Somali belong to the same ethnical group as the Danakil on their northern and the Gallas on their western and southern borders. In several places along the frontiers it is even difficult to decide on the true nationality of the intermediate populations, so indistinct are the transitional types. Nor has the terra Somal itself any very definite meaning, in virtue of which it may be unhesitatingly applied to all the inhabitants of the region comprised between Tajurah Bay and the Juba River. According to Hilde- brandt, this ethnical designation has the sense of " black," or " swarthy," a description which does not hold good for all the Somali jjeople, although they are on the whole of a somewhat darker complexion than either their Danakil or their Galla neighbours. Other etymologists have interpreted the word in the more disparaging sense of " miscreant," " ferocious," or *' truculent," while the Somali themselves offer no explanation of their general appellation. By the Gallas they are called Tumr, a name which is also of uncertain origin and meaning. The country is designated by the Arabs as the Barr-es- Somal, that is to say, the " Abode of the Somali," although the limits of this " abode " are far from