ABDI AND ABDULLAH 349 



self in a white sheet, and cry out his prayers to 

 Mecca. It was his voice that woke the camp, and 

 the immediate answer to his prayers was sometimes 

 quite irreverent, especially from the Wakamba por- 

 ters, who were accustomed to sit up nearly all night 

 gambling. 



Hassan was a Somali, strictly honest and faith- 

 ful. He had the Somali's love of a rupee, and there 

 was no danger or hardship that he would not under- 

 go in the hope of backsheesh. It is the African cus- 

 tom to backsheesh everybody when a lion is killed, 

 so consequently the Somalis were always looking 

 for lions. Perhaps he also prayed for them each 

 morning. 



When we started we had four Somali gunbear- 

 ers, each of whom rose at dawn to pray. As we 

 got up in the high altitudes, where the mornings 

 were bitter cold, the number of suppliants dwindled 

 down to one, and Hassan was the sole survivor. No 

 cold or rain or early rising could cool the fierce re- 

 ligious ardor that burned within him. 



Long before daybreak we would hear his voice 

 raised in a singsong prayer full of strange runs 

 and weird minors. The lions that roared and 

 grunted near the camp would pause in wonder and 

 then steal away as the sound of Hassan's devotions 

 rang out through the chilly, dew-laden dawn. And 

 as if fifteen minutes of morning prayer was not 

 enough to keep him even with his religious obliga- 

 tions, he went through two more long recitals in the 

 afternoon and at night. 



