Page:First Footsteps in East Africa, 1894 - Volume 1.djvu/52

8 perpetrate some peculiar villany. He is a pleasant companion, and piques himself upon that power of quotation which in the East makes a polite man. If we be disposed to hurry, he insinuates that "Patience is of Heaven, Haste of Hell." When roughly addressed, he remarks,—

If a grain of rice adhere to our beards, he says, smilingly, "the gazelle is in the garden"; to which we reply "we will hunt her with the five. " Despite these merits, I hesitated to engage him, till assured by the governor of Zayla that he was to be looked upon as a son, and, moreover, that he would bear with him one of those state secrets to an influential chief which in this country are never committed to paper. I found him an admirable buffoon, skilful in filling pipes and smoking them; au reste, an individual of "many words and little work," infinite intrigue, cowardice, cupidity, and endowed with a truly evil tongue.

The morning sun rose hot upon us, showing Mayyum and Zubah, the giant staples of the "Gate under the Pleiades. " Shortly afterwards, we came in sight of the Barr al-'Ajam (barbarian land), as the Somal call their country, a low glaring flat of yellow sand, desert and