324 Note on the Mijjertheyn Somalees. [No. 149. 



I had returned from the Jerd Hafoon range after two or three days' 

 stay there, and where, owing to the heavy rain, I had been compelled 

 to take a tent, and in company with Captain Powell, was on my way 

 to an assemblage of the chiefs at a considerable distance from our 

 camp, when we were overtaken by a party of Bedouins, of whom one, 

 by name Noor, was a chief of some importance at Murayah. Leaning 

 upon his two spears, he in the first place peremptorily ordered us to 

 halt where we were and proceed no farther, which, in-as-much-as 

 all our baggage had gone on, we thought proper to decline. With his 

 eyes flashing and in a towering rage, he then said, " If you are men, we 

 also are men, and therefore it is wajib that we should understand each 

 other, and now I wish to be informed by what right you have built 

 three forts on Jerd Hafoon, and what you mean by wandering over the 

 country as if you were the owners of it." We told him that any thing 

 he might have to say, we should be glad to hear at the end of our 

 day's march, and requested him to follow us, to which, after some 

 demur, he consented. On the road, however, he made some inquiries 

 from one of our followers, which apparently made him heartily ashamed 

 of himself, and on our arrival at the halting place, he came into our tent 

 at once, and said, that the Bedouins had seen my tent pitched on 

 the Jerd Hafoon range at three different points, and taking it for a 

 chunamed building, had reported it as such to him. We laughed at 

 him for his folly, and became good friends again. 



Though the town's-people affect to despise the Bedouins, and speak 

 of them as a treacherous race, they form the only fighting men in the 

 event of war. Their elders, moreover, are descended from the Sultan, and 

 their voice has sufficient weight at a great national meeting to drown the 

 clamours of the arrogant chiefs who reside on the coast. The name 

 of the Sultan among the Bedouins is highly venerated, and certain cus- 

 toms handed down from time immemorial still exist to remind them 

 of the respect due to the family. 



A short account of the division of the country will serve to shew 

 whence these Bedouins derive their power. 



Sultan Mohamed, the last chief who governed the entire country, and 

 whose death took place some 300 years ago, at his death divided the 

 country equally between his three eldest sons, Othman, Esa and Omar. 



