AYTH. 139 
taken ill, retired to her house to die. The death of this faithful So- 
mauli considerably affected me, as the valuable services he had ren- 
dered us in the Panther, and the gratitude he had shewn for some 
slight favours since conferred, had given me more confidence in his 
attachment than in that of any other of the natives in my employ. 
The village of Ayth, which consists of about forty huts only, 
forms the capital of a district governed by a Sheik, who, at this 
time, from the computation of the natives, was said to be an 
hundred years old. Our super-cargo, who had been on shore, 
described him as a most venerable old man of mild and friendly 
manners. He represented the people as a stout and well featured 
race, but miserably poor, and he was told, that, as no grain is 
cultivated on the coast and very little imported, their food consists 
almost entirely of fish, milk, and occasionally, though very rarely, 
of goafs flesh. The tribe is one of the Danakil, and said to be 
called Adoole, consisting of about two hundred persons, men, 
women and children, of whom a part resides on the islands of 
Dahalac,Valentia, and Howakil. The only communication which 
subsists between Ayth and Abyssinia lies by the way of Madir, a 
village situated at the bottom of the Bay of Amphila. Therm. 76 
Var. 9° 50', W. - 
On December 10th, I sent in the morning a small present to 
the Sheik, and gave Wursum money to defray the expenses of his 
father's funeral. We afterwards weighed anchor from Ayth roads, 
and proceeded under easy sail round the outside of the northern 
Kudaly, a high and steep island about six miles from the con- 
tinent. The tender with one of our mates sailed within the 
island, by which means we ascertained that a passage exists 
