THROUGH SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA T<) THE SUDAN. 777 



but seldoui, they cultivate .suuill tracts of land. These people are 

 rather poor, and they are therefore mostly left in peace In' the Abys- 

 .siniaus. At the time of our visit they Avere in extremely poor cir- 

 cumstances, as different parties of the Ogaden Somal had crossed the 

 river Erer some months ])efore and had cai'ried off many of their cattle. 

 On the whole, the countr}' is a high plateau, thickly grown with bush 

 and intersected by two tributaries of the Wabbi, the Gobele and the 

 Moyo, which have cut deep, canyon-like clefts in the tableland. On 

 the banks of the Moyo we found some beautiful grottoes, and I must 

 also mention the remains of some old towns which we passed during 

 this part of the journe}". Here was formerly situated the Ethiopian 

 frontier province of Daroli, which was devastated in the year 1528 b}' 

 Mohanmied Granye, the Sultan of Tajura — the "Attila of Africa," as 

 he has been called. I must also note, at this point, that the river 

 Shenon, marked on former maps, was not to be found, and was not 

 even known by name to the Ennia people. And further, we discov- 

 ered at several places between Harar and the A^'ab])i, especially near 

 Harrorufa and Achabo, strata of Jurassic age containing numerous 

 fossils, mostly in a splendid condition. On June 10 we were able to 

 cross the riv(^r called Wabbi by the Galla, but better known 1)v the 

 Somali name Webi Shebeli — that is to say, the Leopard River. 



On the farther bank of the Wabbi an event occurred which might 

 ha\e proved fatal to the success of our expedition. Our Somal, or a 

 great part of them, had made up their minds to strike, as they feared 

 our expedition would keep them too long from home. Perhaps they 

 intended to go straight east and to join the revolting Ogaden tribes. 

 By good luck I arrived just in time to stop the party from crossing the 

 river with their rifles. They were afraid to return without them, and 

 so, after a da^^'s considtation, they agreed to go farther west with us. 

 We were now in the country of the Arussi, a large and once much- 

 feared section of the Galla tribe. Near a place called Gurgura we 

 struck the route of Dr. Donaldson Smith, the first explorer of these 

 countries, and followed it as far as the hol\' Mohammedan town of 

 Sheikh Husein. Here, on the southern banks of the Wabbi, the bush 

 was not so dense as on the north, and game was in some places abun- 

 dant. We often found the fresh tracks of elephants, and near a place 

 called Luku there were large herds of zebra {Ef/uus grevyi)^ oryx and 

 *gerenuk'' {Llthoci'anlus Sclateri)^ and plenty of the lesser kudu. 

 'The town of Sheikh Husein is well known from the wonderful descrip- 

 tion given in Dr. Donaldson Smith's book. When you approach it 

 you already see from afar the white tombs of the sheikhs glistening 

 in the sun. There are about twelve tombs altogether. In the middle 

 there is a cemetery containing the tomb of the jNIohammedan saint 

 who is said to have founded the town, and whose name it bears. The 

 inhabitants tell many stories of the miracles he did — for instance, he is 



