188 HOWAKIL. 
♦ 
offered us their hands, declared that they were highly gratified 
at our arrival, and then, turning about, led us forward to the 
village. 
Trifling as the above transaction may appear, I have thought 
it worthy of being particularized, from its relation to a question 
before alluded to, of attempting a first intercourse with savages. 
If Wursum, a Somauli, so nearly allied in habits and manners to 
the Danakil, thought so much precaution necessary in a kindred 
place because he had not before visited it, how imperious must be 
the necessity where Europeans attempt to communicate with 
people whose colour, habits, and manners, are so perfectly dissi- 
milar to their own ? I have been led to give the original phrases 
as a specimen of the vulgar Arabic, from its being commonly 
used on the coasts of the Red Sea. 
As soon as we arrived at the village of Howakil, a very neat 
hut was prepared for me, and as the evening was far advanced I 
consented to stay for the night. Nothing could exceed the kind- 
ness of these good people ; a kid was killed, and a large quantity 
of fresh milk was brought and presented in straw baskets made 
of the leaves of the doom-tree, seared over with wax, a manu- 
facture in which the natives on these islands particularly exceL 
On expressing a desire to retire to rest, a new mat was brought 
to lay upon my couch, and a quantity of Arabian silk was placed 
by the Sheik with his own hands, to form my pillow. 
On the 27th, at day-break, I went on an excursion up the 
mountains for the purpose of taking a general view and bearings 
of the islands in the bay. These mountains are picturesque in 
their aspect, are covered with brush-wood, and constitute a per^ 
