206 THROUGH SOMALILAND AND ABYSSINIA CHAP. 
cannot help the child; it is not of my clan,” is too often the 
answer given by great healthy Somalis on being accused of 
heartlessness. This is due not to natural ferocity of character, 
but to thoughtlessness, what is everybody’s business being 
nobody’s business ; and the little sufferers starve and die. 
Abdul Kader and Jama Deria were glad to help me on to 
Imé, because for some months past the Amaden had been at war 
with the Adone or negroes at Imé; and Jama Deria thought 
this would be a good opportunity of reopening negotiations. 
The country between the Sheikh’s karia and Imé was uninhabited 
for seventy-five miles, and the people told us that while passing 
over this tract we should be exposed to the risk of meeting 
Arussi Galla wandering bands. It appeared that Jama Deria 
and Abdul Kader, though jealous of one another, had settled 
their differences for the time being in order to assist me, and we 
arranged that Jama and his son, and Abdul Kader’s son and 
another Amaden, should guide me to Imé on the 5th of May. 
There being little of my leave remaining, I decided that there 
would not be time to take the slowly-travelling caravan so far, 
and that it would be better to leave it, under command of a 
good camelman, encamped at Abdul Kader’s karias at Dam- 
baswerer, while with my interpreter, two hunters, and four of 
the Amaden, I should ride to Imé and back. The distance 
would be about one hundred and fifty miles, according to the 
natives, and with the help of my mule, two Arab camels, and 
five Amdden ponies, without camp equipage, we hoped to ac- 
complish a short stay at Imé and be back at Dambaswerer 
within six days. A glance at the map will show the confidence 
we felt in the friendship of the natives of Ogadén, to be able to 
cut ourselves adrift from the caravan in unexplored country so 
far in the interior. Imé is four hundred miles from the coast, 
and Dambaswerer seventy-five miles short of Imé. In 1884, at 
the time of Mr. F. L. James’s journey to the Shabéleh district 
to the south-east, such a ride would have been hazardous; but 
since then things have been changing for the better every day. 
Our cavalcade consisted of seven mounted Somalis and myself, 
four having rifles, the other four shields and spears. In the 
saddle-bags on the two Arab camels Abokr and I carried a few 
blankets and necessaries, and a bag of coffee, and for meat we 
depended on the game we expected to fall in with. We rode 
during the whole of 5th May, with a short interval to rest and 
cast loose the camels at noon ; at 5 p.m. we halted by the side 
