Page:First Footsteps in East Africa, 1894 - Volume 1.djvu/51

Rh caps, and the mismanagement of bullets: besides which, he cannot bear hunger, thirst, or cold.

The third is one Abdi Abokr, also of the Habr Girhajis, a personage whom, from his smattering of learning and his prodigious rascality, we call the Mulla "End of Time." He is a man about forty, very old-looking for his age, with small, deep-set cunning eyes, placed close together, a hook nose, a thin beard, a bulging brow, scattered teeth, and a short scant figure, remarkable only for length of back. His gait is stealthy, like a cat's, and he has a villanous grin. This worthy never prays, and can neither read nor write; but he knows a chapter or two of the Koran, recites audibly a long Ratib or task, morning and evening, whence, together with his store of hashed Hadis (tradition), he derives the title of Widad or hedge-priest. His tongue, primed with the satirical sayings of Abn Zayd al-Halali, and Humayd ibn Mansur, is the terror of men upon whom repartee imposes. His father was a wealthy shipowner in his day; but, cursed with Abdi and another son, the old man has lost all his property, his children have deserted him, and he now depends entirely upon the charity of the Zayla chief. The "End of Time" has squandered considerable sums in travelling far and wide from Harar to Cutch, he has managed everywhere to