Page:First Footsteps in East Africa, 1894 - Volume 2.djvu/157

 five miles of Jid Ali. The traveller was offered as many horses as he wanted, and a free passage to Berberah, if he would take part in the battle preparing between the two rival clans of Dulbahantas: he refused, on plea of having other engagements. But whenever the question of penetrating the country was started, there came the same dry answer: "No beggar had even attempted to visit them--what, then, did the Englishman want?" The Abban's mother came out from her hut, which was by the wayside, and with many terrors endeavoured to stop the traveller. _23rd December_.--Next morning the Abban appeared, and, by his sorrowful surprise at seeing Lieutenant Speke across the frontier, showed that he only had made the difficulty. The caravan started early, and, travelling five miles over stony ground, reached the Jid Ali valley. This is a long belt of fertile soil, running perpendicular to the seaward range; it begins opposite Bunder Jedid, at a gap in the mountains through which the sea is, they say, visible. In breadth, at the part first visited by Lieutenant Speke, it is about two miles: it runs southward, and during rain probably extends to about twenty miles inland. Near the head of the valley is a spring of bitter water, absorbed by the soil after a quarter of a mile's course: in the monsoon, however, a considerable torrent must flow down this depression. Ducks and snipe are found here. The valley shows, even at this season, extensive patches of grass, large acacia trees, bushes, and many different kinds of thorns: it is the most wooded lowland seen by Lieutenant Speke. Already the Nomads are here changing their habits; two small enclosures have been cultivated by an old Dulbahanta, who had studied agriculture during a pilgrimage to Meccah. The Jowari grows luxuriantly, with stalks 8 and 9 feet high, and this first effort had well rewarded the enterpriser. Lieutenant Speke lent