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



and another substituted. In some cases, especially when a chief has 

 lost several children in battle, a much greater licence is allowed, and 

 the number of wives is unlimited. 



I have mentioned that Sultan Mohamed had 17 sons; but if my 

 information is correct, he had also 19 daughters, who in accordance 

 with eastern custom, do not " count" as part of the family. 



When the Steam frigate Memnon was wrecked on this coast on 

 the 1st of August last, the chiefs of Feeluk, Aloolla, and Geyseli, and 

 from their vicinity to the scene of the disaster, were the people who 

 profited most by plunder, &c, of which the inhabitants of Bunder 

 Murayah could not partake, owing to their being at a greater distance. 

 Unable to induce their greedy brethren to give them a share, they 

 affected a virtuous spirit, and thanked God they were not robbers of 

 strangers who had been cast away on their coast, and that had they 

 only been there, not even a copper bolt would have been stolen, but 

 most carefully preserved until the English came for it. The less 

 scrupulous chiefs of Aloolla and the other villages, perfectly Content 

 with their rich booty, laughed to scorn the disinterested remonstrances 

 of their brothers at Bunder Murayah ; but to their great astonishment 

 and chagrin, at the annual meeting that took place at Ghoraal on the 

 Jerd Hafoon range in January last, they were severally fined by the 

 assembled elders and chiefs of the tribe for daring to appropriate to 

 themselves property cast on the shore by the sea, without the consent 

 of the " Sultan's house," and this fine, which consisted of one horse 

 each, they were obliged to pay. 



The Mijjertheyn pride themselves upon being a peaceful nation, and 

 are fond of speaking of their country as " Urdel Aman" a title which 

 when compared with the Edoor Hebrawul and Esa Somalis, they in 

 some measure deserve. Murder is uncommon, and the " reesh" or 

 ostrich feather in the hair,* which to the westward denotes that the 

 wearer has killed a man, is by this tribe considered both unholy 

 (haram) and unmanly. The fine for murder, if considered unpro- 

 voked, is a hundred she-camels with young, or a corresponding sum 

 of money. Blood feuds are unfrequent ; commutation by fine ge- 



*Note : — This coincidence in custom with the Abyssinians is one of the most strik- 

 ing of the many proofs of the Arab origin of the latter.— Eds. 



