108 MARCH TO RAH ISSAH. 



valley for nearly two hours,- the road being over the 

 same loose volcanic kind of stones as those of the 

 preceding day's march. I still persisted in walking 

 with Ohmed Mahomed and the Hy Soumaulee, for 

 my mule was so wretchedly slow, that I was 

 much more fatigued sitting on the saddle than if I 

 had walked all the way. 



The road began now to descend into a deep 

 ravine, four or five hundred feet below the level of 

 the plain over which we had been marching. I sat on 

 the edge of the more than perpendicular precipice 

 which actually overhung the road beneath, whilst 

 the opposite height, but a few feet higher, was not 

 seventy yards distant. This pass was called the 

 Rah Issah by the Dankalli, from its having been the 

 spot, and one very well adapted for the purpose, 

 where a rescue was effected by the Debenee tribe 

 of a large herd of cattle, and many flocks that had 

 been driven off their lands in a foray made by the 

 Issah Soumaulee, a people who occupy the whole 

 country that forms the southern border of the Bay 

 of Tajourah, and extends inland without any well- 

 defined division, as far as the plains of Error, the 

 residence of the Wahama Dankalli. From the 

 situation I had chosen, I had a good view of the 

 camels as they wound along the several traverses of 

 the rugged path to the narrow watercourse beneath, 

 and many serious falls and considerable detentions 

 occurred during the perilous^descent ; full two hours 

 having elapsed before Ohmed Mahomed, myself, 



