160 THROUGH SOMALILAND AND ABYSSINIA CHAP. 
and is setting up a place for himself at the advanced post of 
Gojar under Gureis Mountain, just inside the Harar highlands ; 
it is said he wishes to found another Harar there. He has the 
reputation of being disobedient to his superiors and tyrannical to 
the Géri and Bertiri Somalis. He is unpopular in Soméaliland, 
and, if all reports are true, he is not likely to forward British 
interests. He is the worst of those who extract cattle from 
Somaliland without paying, under the pretence of collecting 
tribute for the Emperor ; he has made many requisitions on the 
Habr Awal tribe, which is under British protection; and his 
raids on the Ogaddén cattle are likely to damage our meat-supply 
at Aden in the near future. 
According to a story I have heard on fairly good authority, 
Banagtsé’s history is as follows:—A few years back, in Shoa, 
he somehow incurred the displeasure of the Emperor Menelek, 
and the latter ordered that he should be disgraced and punished. 
When the Abyssinians took Harar, Banagusé so distinguished 
himself that R4s Makunan gave him charge of Jarso District, in 
which lies the village of Gojar, commanding the Hilindéra 
Pass; and the fort of Jig-Jiga, dominating the Karin Marda 
Pass, both of which lead from Berbera and Hargeisa to Harar. 
He appears, however, to have done nothing for the country, 
taking numbers of horses and cattle away to feed the troops, 
and exacting double road fees from Berbera caravans. The 
Emperor Menelek, who had in the meantime almost forgotten 
Banagusé’s existence, hearing the Somali complaints, sent Gabra- 
tagli to Darima to check the caravan fees ; so naturally the two 
officials were not exactly friends. 
Gabratagli was a cheery old man, wearing a tobe, a pair of 
white calico drawers, and an immense straw hat. He kept a 
piece of calico soaked in butter over his shaven skull, under 
his hat, ‘‘to keep his head cool,” as he said he was a martyr to 
neuralgia. He rode a white mule, and had an athletic soldier, 
dressed in calico drawers, constantly at hand with his drinking- 
cup and a mysterious bottle, which did not contain water. I 
took a great liking to this old man. 
Gabratagli had travelled much, and had often visited Aden ; 
and he asked me concerning the health of English officers whom 
he had met many years before, whose names I had never heard ; 
and on my admitting this, he remarked, “If you don’t remember 
these you must be very young.” Before he left my camp he 
sent a mounted messenger to Harar with a letter from me to 
