I 
SOMALI ETHNOLOGY 
9 
panions ride back covered with sweat and glory, the tired nags 
showing gaping spear-wounds and mouths dripping with blood 
from the cruel bits. This is life ! In the intervals between 
expeditions the Somdlis, when not sleeping, sit in circles on the 
outskirts of their karias, talking, drinking camel’s milk, and 
eating mutton for days together. Every adult male has his say 
in the affairs of the tribe, and is to a certain extent a born 
orator. 
Som&lis are Mussulmans of the Shafai sect, and use the 
Sonkdi salutation “ Nabad” or the Arab “ Salaam aleihum ” 
which is answered by “Aleihum salaam ” and touching of 
hands. The men are nearly all dressed alike, in long “ tobes ” 
of white sheeting of different degrees of dirtiness, from brown 
to dazzling white ; not a few of the tobes have been dipped in 
red clay and are of a bright burnt-sienna colour, making the 
wearers look like Burmese priests. A long dagger ( bildwa ) is 
strapped round the waist, while a shield and two spears are 
carried in the hands. A grass water-bottle and Ogdden prayer- 
carpet are slung over the shoulders of some, and on the feet 
are thick sandals, turned up in front, and changed every hour 
or so to ease the feet. Many of the men wear a leather charm 
containing a verse of the Koran, a lump of yellow amber, or a 
long prayer chaplet ( tusba ) of black sweet-smelling wood around 
the neck. The camels are often adorned with cowrie necklaces. 
The tobe is a simple cotton sheet of two breadths sewn 
together, about fifteen feet long, and is worn in a variety of 
ways. Generally it is thrown over one or both shoulders, a 
turn given round the waist, and allowed to fall to the ankles. 
In cold weather the head is muffled up in it after the fashion of 
an Algerian “ burnouse.” When sleeping round a camp fire the 
body is enveloped in it from head to foot, as in a winding- 
sheet ; for a fight the chest and arms are left bare, the part 
which was thrown over the shoulders being wound many times 
round the waist to protect the stomach. In the jungle the 
tobes are worn till they are brown and threadbare ; but at the 
coast towns they are generally of dazzling whiteness. Elders, 
horsemen, and those who wish to assume a little extra dignity, 
discard the common tobe and affect the Ichaili , a gorgeous 
tartan arrangement in red, white, and blue, each colour being 
in two shades, with a narrow fringe of light yellow. On horse- 
back it is a very becoming dress, and it is often affected by a 
favourite wife. All khaili tobes are about the same in appear- 
