Page:First Footsteps in East Africa, 1894 - Volume 1.djvu/137

 purpose besides my safety. Petty feuds between the chiefs had long "closed the path," and perhaps the Somal were not unwilling that British cloth and tobacco should re-open it. Early in the morning of the 27th of November, 1854, the mules and all the paraphernalia of travel stood ready at the door. The five camels were forced to kneel, growling angrily the while, by repeated jerks at the halter: their forelegs were duly tied or stood upon till they had shifted themselves into a comfortable position, and their noses were held down by the bystanders whenever, grasshopper-like, they attempted to spring up. Whilst spreading the saddle-mats, our women, to charm away remembrance of chafed hump and bruised sides, sang with vigor the "Song of Travel": "0 caravan-men, we deceive ye not, we have laden the camels! Old women on the journey are kenned by their sleeping I (0 camel) can'st sniff the cock-boat and the sea? Allah guard thee from the Mikahil and their Midgans!" [2] As they arose from squat it was always necessary to adjust their little mountains of small packages by violently "heaving up" one side,--an operation never failing to elicit a vicious grunt, a curve of the neck, and an attempt to bite. One camel was especially savage; it is said that on his return to Zayla, he broke a Bedouin girl's neck. Another, a diminutive but hardy little brute of Dankali breed, conducted himself so uproariously that he at once obtained the name of El Harami, or the Ruffian. About 3 P.M., accompanied by the Hajj, his amiable son Mohammed, and a party of Arab matchlockmen,