24 THROUGH UNKNOWN AFRICAN COUNTRIES. 
having rather a pleasant flavor, but which is unsatisfactory 
to eat on account of the large stone it contains. There is 
no fruit in Somaliland, properly speaking, though there 
are many mere apologies for berries, which are eaten by 
the natives. 
Up to the present time, with Dodson’s assistance, I had 
collected about seventy different species of birds, many of 
them of most beautiful plumage. It was my purpose not 
only to collect specimens which might be new to science, 
but to get a complete series of all the birds in the different 
countries through which I passed, and I endeavored to do 
the same in all the other branches of natural history. 
There were many beautiful specimens of doves, some of 
them very tiny, and also starlings with yellow breasts, and 
beautiful -metallic blue backs and wings. Already at 
Hargesa I had succeeded in shooting a night jhar, that 
proved to be new to science, and from that time scarcely a 
week passed without my having secured two or three new 
birds. 
From Sessabane I was obliged to describe a great curve, 
going at first south, and then far up north again to Lafkei. 
There was one tract of country to cross where water was 
not obtainable for three long marches. 
It was a hilly, stony country, covered with mimosa 
brush and a sprinkling of larger mimosa-trees. The 
Somalis call this tract of country Sibbe; another name 
they give it is Habr-i-erde, which means “bad for old 
women. This name impressed me very much, as I had 
too often seen the sad state in which old women roamed 
throughout Somaliland. The Somalis are the best savages 
in Africa, but they have their little ways; and one 
is not to trouble about a woman after she _ gets 
old, whether she be mother or sister. So many of 
the poor old wretches are doomed to wander about, 
