Page:First Footsteps in East Africa, 1894 - Volume 2.djvu/152

 where they found a spring of clear and brackish water from the limestone rock, and flowing about 600 yards down a deep rocky channel, in parts lined with fine Acacias. A Kraal was found here, and the traveller passed a comfortable night. _12th December_.--About 9 A.M. the caravan started, and threaded a valley, which, if blessed with a fair supply of water, would be very fertile. Whilst everything else is burned up by the sun on the high ground, a nutritious weed, called Buskallay, fattens the sheep and goats. Wherever, therefore, a spring is found, men flock to the place and fence themselves in a Kraal. About half-way the travellers reached Darud bin Ismail's tomb, a parallelogram of loose stones about one foot high, of a battered and ignoble appearance; at one extremity stood a large sloping stone, with a little mortar still clinging to it. No outer fence surrounded the tomb, which might easily be passed by unnoticed: no honors were paid to the memory of the first founder of the tribe, and the Somal did not even recite a Fatihah over his dust. After marching about twelve miles, the caravan encamped at Labbahdilay, in the bed of a little watercourse which runs into the Yubbay Tug. Here they found a small pool of bad rain water. They made a rude fence to keep out the wild beasts, and in it passed the night. _13th December_.--The Somal showed superior activity in marching three successive days; the reason appears to be that the Abban was progressing towards his home. At sunrise the camels were loaded, and at 8 A.M. the caravan started up a valley along the left bank of a watercourse called the Yubbay Tug. This was out of the line, but the depth of the perpendicular sides prevented any attempt at crossing it. The people of the country have made a peculiar use of this feature of ground. During the last war, ten or eleven years ago,