22 THROUGH SOMALILAND AND ABYSSIN/A CHAP. 
the belief that the Somdlis are Gallas with a slight strain of Arab 
in their blood. The Somdlis themselves deny this, and claim 
descent from the higher race. Both Gallas and Somalis, though 
bitter enemies, are much alike, and utterly different from the 
mongrel Swahili races to the south. 
On the Tana I found a river population called the Wa-pokémo, 
negroes of fine physique, lorded over and held in bondage by the 
warlike Gallas; and on the Webbe Shabéleh a river race called 
the Adone, also negroes, were working in the fields and punting 
rafts on the river for their masters, the Somalis. 
My theory is that the Gallas seem to be wedged in between 
the continually advancing Somalis from the north and the Masai 
and other races from the south, the apex of the wedge being 
somewhere near the Tana mouth, and the base at the sources of 
the Juba. The effect of this pressure is perhaps driving the Tana 
Gallas up the river, to the country where they are more numerous 
and can hold their own. 
Monseigneur Taurin Cahaigne of Harar, who probably knows 
as much as any man living about the Gallas, hinted, so far as I can 
remember, that the origin of the Galla nation was probably near the 
mouth of the Tana, whence they spread northward and westward. 
The tribe occupying the coast round Zeila is the Esa, and 
those about Bulhar and Berbera are the Habr Awal, and farther 
east Habr Toljaala. The nearest inland tribe to Zeila is the 
Gadabursi, those on the Berbera side being the Habr Gerhajis 
and Dolbahanta. The six above-named are the tribes with which 
the British authorities have most directly to deal. Of these the 
most capable in war is probably the Esa. The Gadabursi and 
Habr Awal fear them, and it is only because the former are 
mounted and the latter have no horses that the balance of power 
is maintained. The Esa are chaffed by the Ishak tribes for being 
uncouth and barbarous. The men go about dressed in a simple 
short cloth round the loins, while eastern Somalis generally wrap 
themselves in a full tobe. The Esa women do not necessarily 
cover up the breast, while among the Ishak tribes all but the 
oldest and most destitute are well dressed from head to foot. In 
no tribe that I have seen do the Somali women cover the face. 
The Gadabursi tribe is rich in ponies of a poor stamp. The Jibril 
Abokr sub-tribe of the Habr Awal is, I think, the best mounted 
among the tribes named, and the Dolbahanta also have enormous 
numbers of good ponies, and are wild and addicted to raiding on 
a very large scale. 
