TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 55 



The majority of the tribes are nomadic. There are 

 some settled, some traders pure and simple, and some 

 outcaste people, of whom the Midgans seem the most 

 romantic — probably because he still uses bow and 

 arrow, lives a hand to mouth existence, calls no karia 

 home, and makes his bed in the open. 



Most Somalis wear the long tobe in various 

 degrees of cleanliness. The real dandy affects a 

 garment of dazzling whiteness. Less particular people 

 carry on until the tobe is filthy. I imagine the 

 cloth hails from Manchester. It is cotton sheeting, 

 several feet in length, and put on according to the 

 taste and fancy, artistic, original, or otherwise, of the 

 wearer. It is a graceful costume, Caesar-like and 

 imposing. At night it is not removed, and seen by 

 the light of the fire each sleeping Somali looks like 

 nothing so much as some great cocoon. 



A praying carpet is considered an indispensable 

 part of the Somali equipment. It isn't really a carpet 

 at all, being nothing in the wide world but a piece of 

 tanned hide or skin. Some of our men spent a good 

 deal of time on the mat, prostrating themselves at the 

 most untoward moments. Others again did not seem 

 to have got religion, and never called the thing into 

 use at all. But to every one of them Allah was a 

 something impossible to get along without entirely. 

 If there had been no Allah or Kismet to put all the 

 blame on to when everything went wrong, we should 

 have been in an awkward place indeed. 



It was at this encampment I purchased two more 

 ponies, not beautiful to look at but beggars to go. 



