Page:First Footsteps in East Africa, 1894 - Volume 1.djvu/53

Rh heat-reeking, tenanted by the Ísa, and a meet habitat for savages. Such to us, at least, appeared the land of Adel. At midday we descried the Ras al-Bir,—Headland of the Well,—the promontory which terminates the bold Tajurrah range, under which lie the sleeping waters of the Maiden's Sea. During the day we rigged out an awning, and sat in the shade smoking and chatting merrily, for the weather was not much hotter than our English summer seas. Some of the crew tried praying; but prostrations are not easily made on board ship, and Al-Islam, as Umar shrewdly suspected, was not made for a seafaring race. At length the big red sun sank slowly behind the curtain of sky-blue rock, where lies the not yet "combusted" village of Tajurrah. We lay down to rest with the light of day, and had the satisfaction of closing our eyes upon a fair though captious breeze.

On the morning of the 3ist October, we entered the Zayla Creek, which gives so much trouble to native craft. We passed, on the right, the low island of