252 MY SOMALI BOOK 



would, in the existing conditions, involve an expenditure 

 immensely out of proportion to any possible gain. 

 Nor did any attempt to develop the country promise 

 an adequate return. 



That these considerations proved weighty ones in 

 the estimation of a Liberal Government is hardly 

 surprising. There was, however, a considerable outcry 

 at the " baseness of our desertion " of the friendly 

 tribes whom we were supposed to have left to the 

 mercies of the Mullah, who would either destroy them 

 or compel them to join him, to our future sorrow. 



I think this view is based on ignorance of the facts. 

 There is no doubt that the Mullah's power and prestige 

 have alike,, djeclined. One reason is that he has 

 quarrelled, apparently irrevocably, with the Dolbahanta, 

 the tribe to which his mother belonged, and who had 

 all along been among the most powerful of his sup- 

 porters. Another reason is his recent denunciation, 

 as an impostor and unorthodox, by Sheikh Mahomed 

 Saleh (I think that is his name), the spiritual head at 

 Mecca of the Shafai sect to which the Somalis belong.* 



There is, moreover, nothing illusory about our 

 supply of rifles and ammunition to the friendly tribes. 

 How far they would drop their inter-tribal quarrels, 

 and combine, was very doubtful ; but owing to the 

 Mullah's exactions and his attempts to terrorise them 



* In this connection it is interesting to x-ecall that some years ago in Aden, 

 an old Arab suggested to me that the most effective way of breaking the 

 Somali Mnllah's power wonld be to got hold of this Mecca gentleman and 

 persuade him to come to Bei'bera and denounce Mahomed AbduUa, whose 

 methods had ah-eady given ample cause for such a proceeding : this suggestion 

 was forwarded to the proper authorities, but I do not suppose any action in 

 the direction indicated was practicable at that time, and I am not aware 

 whether any was ever taken. 



