Page:First Footsteps in East Africa, 1894 - Volume 1.djvu/119

Rh the pagan. Deformed by fable, the foundation of the tale is fact: the numerous descendants of the holy men still pay an annual fine, by way of blood-money to the family of the infidel chief. The last and most important Arab immigration took place about fifteen generations or 450 years ago, when the Sharif Ishak bin Ahmad, left his native country Hazramaut, and, with forty-four saints, before mentioned, landed on Makhar—the windward coast extending from Karam Harbour to Cape Guardafui. At the town of Met, near Burnt Island, where his tomb still exists, he became the father of all the gentle blood and the only certain descent in the Somali country: by Magaden, a free woman, he had Jirhajis, Awal, and Arab; and by a slave or slaves, Jailah, Sambur, and Rambad. Hence the great clans, Habr Jirhajis and Awal, who prefer the matronymic—Habr signifying a mother—since, according to their dictum, no man knows who may be his sire. These increased and multiplied by connection and affiliation to such an extent that about A.D. 1500 they drove their progenitors, the Galla, from Berberah, and gradually encroached upon them, till they entrenched themselves in the Highlands of Harar.

The old and pagan genealogies still known to the Somal, are Dirr, Aydur, Darud, and, according to some, Hawiyah. Dirr and Aydur, of whom nothing is certainly known but the name, are the progenitors of the northern