Page:First Footsteps in East Africa, 1894 - Volume 2.djvu/255

 anointed their bodies. After we had left his hut, he came to me, and in presence of the Ras el Caffilah and Deeni said, 'You see I have treated you with great honour, you must give me a mule and plenty of cloth, as all my people want cloth. You have given me nothing as yet!' Seeing that I became rather angry, and declared solemnly that I had given him the horse and Tobe, he smiled and said, 'I know that, but I want a mule, my horse has been stolen.'--I replied that I would see about it. He then asked for all my blue cloth and my Arab 'Camblee' (blanket). My portmanteau being rather the worse for wear--its upper leather was torn--he thrust in his fingers, and said, with a most avaricious grin, 'What have you here?' I immediately arose and exclaimed, 'You are not my father; the Wallasena told me you would treat me kindly; this is not doing so.' He begged pardon and said, 'Do not be frightened, my son; I will take nothing from you but what you give me freely. You think I am a bad man; people have been telling you ill things about me. I am now an old man, and have given up such child's work as plundering people.' It became, however, necessary to inquire of Datah Mahomed what were his intentions with regard to myself. I found that I had been deceived at Shoa; there it was asserted that he lived at Errur and was brother to Bedar, one of the most powerful chiefs of the Adel, instead of which it proved that he was not so highly connected, and that he visited Errur only occasionally. Datah told me that his marriage feast would last seven days, after which he would forward me to Doomi, where we should find Bedar, who would send me either to Tajoorah or to Hurrur, as he saw fit. "I now perceived that all hope of reaching Hurrur was at an end. Vexed and disappointed at having suffered so much in vain, I was obliged to resign the idea of going there for the following reasons: The Mission