Page:EB1911 - Volume 25.djvu/396

 race of magnificent physique, tall, active and robust, with fairly regular features, but showing blood in their frequently black complexion and still more in their kinky and even woolly. Their colour varies from the hue to, and curiously enough the most regular features are to be found among the darkest groups.

There are four classes in Somaliland: ( 1 ) who breed, ,  and , live entirely on  and meat, and follow the rains in search of ; ( 2 ) settled Somali, comparatively few, living in or near the coasts; ( 3 ) outcast races, not organized in  but living scattered all over Somaliland; they are , workers in  and , and the chief collectors of  and ; ( 4 ) traders. The  is the “tobe,” a simple  sheet of two breadths sewn together, about 15 ft. long. Generally it is thrown over one or both shoulders, a turn given round the waist, and allowed to fall to the ankles. The “tobes” are of all colours from brown to white. A ceremonial “tobe” of red, white and blue, each colour in two shades, with a narrow fringe of light yellow, is sometimes worn. Old men and sometimes grow a. Middle-aged men wear the hair about an inch and a half long; young men and boys in a huge mop; while married women wear it in a chignon, and girls in mop-form but plaited.

The Somali are a fighting race and all go armed with spear, and short  (and  when they can get them). During the rains incessant lootings of  take place. Among certain those who have killed a man have the right to wear an -feather in their. They are great talkers, keenly sensitive to ridicule, and quick-tempered. Women hold a degraded position among the Somali (wives being often looted with ), doing most of the hard work. The Somali love display; they are inordinately vain and avaricious; but they make loyal and trustworthy soldiers and are generally bright and intelligent.

The Somali have very little political or social cohesion, and are divided into a multiplicity of rers or fakidas. Three main divisions, however, have been clearly determined, and these are important both on political and ethnical grounds.

Exploration.—Somaliland was one of the last parts of to be explored by. The occupation of by the  in 1839 proved the starting-point in the opening up of the country,  being the chief port with which the Somali of the opposite coast traded. The task of mapping the coast was largely undertaken by officers of the, while the first explorers of the interior were officers of the   quartered at -Lieut. Cruttenden ( 1848 ),, and (the discoverer of the  ). In 1854, unaccompanied, penetrated inland as far as. Later on the expedition was attacked by Somali near, both and  being wounded, and another officer, Lieut. Stroyan, R.N., killed. For twenty years afterwards no attempt was made to open up the country. The occupation of by the  in 1875 was, however, followed by several journeys into the interior. Of those who essayed to cross the waterless Haud more than one lost his life. In 1883 a party of —F. L. and W. D. James (brothers), G. P. V. Aylmer, and E. Lort-Phillips—penetrated from as far as the Webi-Shebeli, and returned in safety. At the instance of the government surveys of the country between the coast and the Webi-Shebeli and also east towards the Wadi Nogal were executed by Major H. G. C. Swayne and his brother Captain E. J. E. Swayne between 1886 and 1892. Meanwhile a traveller, G. Révoil, had ( 1878–1881 ) made three journeys in the north-east corner of the, especially in the Darror valley. The first person who reached the, going south from the , was an , Dr A. Donaldson Smith (b. 1864 ). He explored ( 1894–1895 ) the head streams of the Shebeli, reached, and eventually descended the Tana river to the sea, his journey thus taking him through southern Somaliland. Meantime the greater part of the eastern seaboard having fallen under influence, the exploration of the hinterland had been undertaken by travellers of that nationality. In 1890 Brichetti-Robecchi made a journey along the eastern coast from Obbia to beyond Cape Guardafui. In the following year he went from to Obbia, and thence crossed through Ogaden to  on the. In the same year Prince Eugenio Ruspoli made a journey southwards from, while two other penetrated to Imi on the upper Shebeli, which place was also reached in 1903 by H. G. C. Swayne. In 1892 Captain Vittorio Bottego and a companion left and made their way past Imi to the upper, which Bottego explored to its source, both travellers finally making their way via Lugh to the east coast. Prince Ruspoli in 1893 reached Lugh from the north, thence turning north-west. He was killed in the by an. In 1895 Bottego, with three companions, left Brava to investigate the river system north of, and succeeded in tracing the  to that lake. Subsequently in the highlands the expedition was attacked by  and Captain Bottego was killed. Dr Sacchi, who was returning to Lugh with some of the scientific results of the mission, was also killed by natives. An expedition under H. S. H. Cavendish ( 1896–1897 ) followed somewhat in Donaldson Smith's steps, and the last named traveller again crossed Somaliland in his journey from  via