350 THE DEBENEE CHIEF. 



valour consists in being always ready. A man has 

 to be frightened a good many times before he 

 graduates into a hero, but only let him have so 

 ordered his resources of defence, and the anxiety 

 natural to all men in situations of danger is kept 

 suppressed, by the confidence which results from 

 proper preparations having been made, to meet the 

 worst that can happen. 



The Sheik, or Chief, of this subdivision of the 

 Debenee came to my hut in the course of the day. 

 Allee the First pulled him along by the beard, 

 calling out " Shabah, Shabah!" (old man) to make 

 a way for him, through the crowd of his own people 

 who encircled my place. I thought at first he was 

 some blind individual who wanted me to restore 

 him to sight, as he knelt down on his hands and 

 knees to creep into the shade. Zaido, however, 

 hanging his black head into the entrance of the 

 hut, cried out that this was the celebrated Abu 

 Buker ee, the friend of the " Kapitan," for whom, 

 of late, I had been making some inquiries. 

 " Kapitan " was the name by which Lieut. Barker, 

 of the Indian Navy, was known to the Dankalli. 

 A few weeks before, this gentleman had travelled 

 through Adal on his return from Shoa ; his original 

 intention had been to take the Hurrah road, and so 

 to Zeilah, and for that purpose he had lived some 

 months in Aliu-amba, a town in Shoa, inhabited 

 chiefly by Hurrahgee people. A Kafilah going 

 down, the Has undertook to convey him and 



