176 
BAY 'OF AMPHILA. 
the extreme 6are and caution used by the natives of Africa them- 
selves in opening a communication with tribes to which they 
had before bem strangers; a particular instance of which I shall 
have occasion to describe in a subsequent visit to the Island of 
Howakil. 
The country round Amphila forms part of an extensive tract 
formerly termed the kingdom of Dankali, the sovereign of 
which was engaged at an early period in the wars carried on 
by the Kings of Hurrur and Adaiel against Abyssinia. The 
inhabitants are nearly allied by their habits and language to the 
Adaiel, and thei^ respective territories lay contiguous till the 
great inroad of the i^alla, who, by advancing to the coast in the 
neighbourhood of Asab, completely separated them. Both the 
district and the people inhabiting it still retain the name of Dan- 
kali, but the latter is now subdivided into a great number of petty 
tribes, each ruled by its own peculiar chief. The tribe of greatest 
consequence is that of the Bumhoeta, who hold possession of the 
coast from Beloul to Arena, besides considerable districts in the 
interior : the number of their fighting men may be computed at 
one thousand. Next to these may be reckoned the two tribes of 
the Taiemela and the Hadarem, each of which can bring two 
hundred men into the field ; both having their residence among 
the mountains in the neighbourhood of the salt plain. Adjoining 
them to the northward dwell the Belessua, partly dependent on the 
Taiemela, while to the southward at Ayth, and in its immediate 
neighbourhood, reside the small tribes of Adoole and Modeto, 
who are chiefly employed in a sea-faring life, and are connected, 
as I have before remarked, with the old settlers on the islands 
