Page:First Footsteps in East Africa, 1894 - Volume 1.djvu/92



determined on the 9th of November to visit the island of Sa'ad al-Din, the larger of the two patches of ground which lie about two miles north of the town. Reaching our destination, after an hour's lively sail, we passed through a thick belt of underwood tenanted by swarms of midges, with a damp chill air crying fever, and a fetor of decayed vegetation smelling death. To this succeeded a barren flat of silt and sand, white with salt and ragged with salsolaceous stubble, reeking with heat, and covered with old vegetation. Here, says local tradition, was the ancient site of Zayla, built by Arabs from Al-Yaman. The legend runs that when Sa'ad al-Din was besieged and slain by David, king of Ethiopia, the wells dried up and the island sank. Something doubtless occurred which rendered a removal advisable: the sons of the Moslem hero fled to Ahmad bin al-Ashraf, Prince of Sana'a, offering their allegiance if he would build fortifications for them and aid them against the Christians of Abyssinia. The consequence was a walled circuit upon