civil. Your friends will comb their own
hair while they entertain you, and will watch
the barber as he gives your head (but, of
course, not your chin) its morning shave.

At eleven before noon, when the fresh
water has come from the wells, which are
three or four miles distant from the town,
the time will have arrived for dining upon
greasy mutton stew, boiled rice, maize cakes
and curds. There are fowls, but the neighbours
will not like to see a person eating
birds, and of course there will be neighbours
to watch and help at the dining; there is
fish also in plenty, and it may be eaten, but
there is chance then that the Bedouins may
say, " Speak not to me with that mouth
which eateth fish."

After dinner, the house having been cleared
of visitors, sleep may be enjoyed, until, at
two o'clock, there is a clamour of more neighbours
at the outer door, who come to spend
the afternoon. Towards sunset one may go
out for a walk, taking the shantarah-board,
—which is the East African draught-board,—
for a game under the shade, or if disposed to
practise with the neighbours, one may leap
and throw the javelin. At the southern gate
the boys may be seen playing at hockey, or
the citizens may be joined in one of their
great matches of ball. These are so roughly
played, that at the end of every game the
scanty and old clothing that the players
choose to wear, is taken home in rags; there
is also, when the match is over, much dancing
and shouting of the victors, who proceed in
triumph through the town. Beyond the
hockey-players and the ball-players, one may
pass also into an encampment of the Bedouins
which is outside the gate. These suburban
people dwell in low and smoky tents, carry
shield, spear and dagger, and have huge
heads of shock hair, dyed red, and wet with
butter. Each head of hair carries as
ornaments its three-pronged comb, and the stick
used as a scratcher when the owner does not
wish to grease his fingers. Some heads are
adorned also with the ostrich plume, which
means that he who wears it has destroyed a
man,—not necessarily in open fight, more
commonly by stealth or treachery.

Before sunset it is necessary to return into
the town, because at sunset all the gates are
locked, and the call sounds to evening
prayer. Whoso neglects prayer at the five
prayer-times on Friday—the Moslem
sabbath—suffers bastinado. But, there are ways,
and again ways, of praying. Captain Burton
heard one of the natives of these parts lamenting
in the night season. She was suffering
from toothache, and the groans of her spirit
were, " Oh, Allah, may thy teeth ache like mine!
Oh, Allah, may thy gums be sore as mine!"

Neighbours assist, finally, in shortening
the hours of night over supper and
superstitious talk,—they talk of men who take
hyena forms, tell fortunes with beads, or talk
of what Arabs call El Iksar (with us the
Elixir) which, in this part of the world, is a
kind of wood that causes milk-pails to be full
of silver. They talk also of vampyres, of the
evil eye, of mischief brewed by women.
"Wit in a woman," one says. " is a habit of
running away in a dromedary."—"Allah,"
says another, " made woman of a crooked
bone; he who would straighten her, breaketh
her."

At an early hour visitors depart, mats are
spread, and one may go to bed Somali fashion,
with the head upon a hollow pedestal of
wood for a pillow. And one may sleep well
if, during the day, too much kat has not been
chewed.

The leaves of the drug called kat are the
chief source of pleasurable excitement in
these districts of East Africa. Botanists,
taking the native name for the plant, turn it
into Catha edulis, eatable kat. It is much
used by the Arabs, to whom it is sent in
camel loads, consisting of a number of small
parcels, each containing about forty slender
twigs, with the leaves attached, carefully
wrapped, so as to avoid exposure to the air.
These leaves are chewed, and act upon the
spirits of those using them, much as a strong
dose of green tea acts upon us in Europe,
when it acts agreeably. Europeans used to
stronger stimulants, are little affected by the
use of kat, but among the more temperate
Arabs it is so welcome a provocative to good
humour, that about two hundred and eighty
camel-loads of it are used every year in Aden
only.

The way to Harar is among eaters of kat,
across a land that is a Goshen to the druggist;
a land in which the castor oil plant
flourishes, where aloes abound, where the wind
rustles through leaves of senna; where the
torrent beds are overgrown with long lines of
green colocynth, and one meets constantly
with clumps of jujube trees. There are
serpents in those regions, which the native Somal
hold it to be a religious act when possible to
kill. It is a religious act also to kill a crow,
—for the crow, which was created a white
bird, became black through sin. When the
holy prophet and Abubekr were hidden in
the cave, the pigeon also hid there, and
avoided the pursuers, but the crow sat
outside and screamed " Ghar! ghar! " (the
cave! the cave!) whereupon Mahomet
ordered him into eternal mourning for his
traitorous behaviour.

After a very considerable delay, Mr. Burton
and his little caravan. succeeded in departing
out of Zayla, under the care of an Abbau or
protector, which is the dignified shape
assumed in those parts by a guide. The ruler
at Zayla could not comprehend the disguised
Englishman's intention. Small-pox was
depopulating Harar, the road swarmed with
brigands, the Prince of Harar would
certainly destroy him; and besides, he said
privately, for he knew what was below the
Arab merchant's dress, " If the English wish