TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 55 
The majority of the tribes are nomadic. There are 
some settled, some traders pure and simple, and some 
outcaste people, of whom the Midgans seem the most 
romantic— probably because he still uses bow and 
arrow, lives a hand to mouth existence, calls no karia 
home, and makes his bed in the open. 
Most Somalis wear the long tobe in various degrees 
of cleanliness. The real dandy affects a garment 
of dazzling whiteness. Less particular people carry 
on until the tobe is filthy. I imagine the cloth hails 
from Manchester. It is cotton sheeting, several 
feet in length, and put on according to the taste 
and fancy, artistic, original, or otherwise, of the 
wearer. It is a graceful costume, Caesar-like and 
imposing. At night it is not removed, and seen by 
the light of the fire each sleeping Somali looks like 
nothing so much as some great cocoon. 
A praying carpet is considered an indispensable 
part of the Somali equipment. It isn’t really a carpet 
at all, being nothing in the wide world but a piece of 
tanned hide or skin. Some of our men spent a good 
deal of time on the mat, prostrating themselves at the 
most untoward moments. Others again did not seem 
to have got religion, and never called the thing into 
use at all. But to every one of them Allah was a 
something impossible to get along without entirely. 
If there had been no Allah or Kismet to put all the 
blame on to when everything went wrong, we should 
have been in an awkward place indeed. 
It was at this encampment I purchased two more 
ponies, not beautiful to look at but beggars to go. 
