APPEARANCE WHEN IN COUNCIL. 265 



avoid a quarrel. If, however, party feeling should 

 run unusually high, the precaution of a general 

 peace assembly is resorted to both before and after 

 the discussion, when every man takes an oath upon 

 the Koran not to injure the others, so that whilst 

 a number of tribes are combined together in any 

 general business, it very rarely happens that a 

 quarrel takes place among them. 



"With respect to the usual attitude of these people, 

 when sitting in conversation, or in council, their 

 faces just appearing above the upper edge of their 

 shields, it struck me that very probably, this might 

 have given occasion, for the representations made of 

 an Ethiopian people who had no heads, but whose 

 eyes and mouths were placed upon their breasts. 

 No other reason can be found to account for the 

 described appearance of the Blemmyes, and those 

 who have seen the Dankalli sitting behind their 

 shields, either in council or in battle array, must 

 admit, I think, the probability that this national 

 and characteristic custom was the foundation of 

 the ancient report. 



April 26th. — All the Hy Soumaulee being ready 

 to start, our Kafilah moved off the ground about 

 sunrise. I marched in company with Ohmed 

 Medina and our numerous- escort, over a rich well- 

 watered country for two hours, till we arrived at 

 the commencement of a large plain, flanked by flat- 

 topped lava ridges, where it was again resolved to 

 halt for the day. The plain was called Barradudda. 



