18 THROUGH SOMALILAND AND ABYSSINIA CHAP. 
not his fate? and no man can fight with fate or with the will of 
Allah! He has lost your property, and there is an end of it. 
Although I have made many jungle trips in India and else- 
where, yet in no country have I had such obedient and cheerful 
followers and such pleasant native companions, despite their 
faults, as in Somaliland. In my earlier and later trips I have 
often been from one to four months in the interior with no 
other companion than the Somalis; and I cannot say there has 
been a dull moment. 
Major Abud, who for some years lived in, and had the 
immediate administration of, Berbera and Bulhar, and the 
greater part of the Somali coast-protectorate, and who is doubt- 
less the best authority on the intricate inter-tribal relations of 
the Somalis, has furnished me with a few notes on their early 
history. He says: “The real origin of the Somalis is wrapped 
in mystery. They themselves say that they are descended from 
‘noble Arabs,’ who, having had occasion to fly from their own 
country, landed on the Somali coast and intermarried with the 
aboriginal inhabitants, many of whose descendants still exist, 
though they now mingle with the Somalis. The Somalis, 
although none of them, except a few mullahs, can write, know 
their genealogical descent by heart, and, although the custom is 
beginning to die out, nearly every youngster is made to learn 
the names of his forefathers in their order. Out of at least a 
thousand elders examined while I was working at the genealogy 
of the tribes, none could trace their descent further than twenty 
or twenty-two generations; and if this number is correct the 
dawn of the Somali nation would be placed about twelve or 
thirteen hundred years ago, nearly coinciding with the rise of 
Mahomed, on whose account the Arabs were obliged to fly from 
Mecca. This coincidence in time is so much in favour of the 
Somali claim ; but, on the other hand, it is difficult to believe 
that ‘noble Arabs’ would knowingly give their children the 
barbarous names some of them have. In any case we must 
seek away from the true African races for the origin of the 
Somali, for he bears no trace of the negroid type. It is supposed 
by some, from a resemblance, fancied or real, in. the languages, 
that the Somalis may be allied to the races of Hindustan. So 
far, however, the subject has not been thoroughly worked out, 
and for all practical purposes the descent from ‘noble Arabs’ 
may be assumed as a convenient starting-point. 
“The two great tribal groups of the Somali nation are named 
