SOMALI ETHNOLOGY 
25 
boy. As years went on this son grew, and when he had become 
a man he returned into Arroweilo’ s country armed with a sword. 
He attacked Arroweilo in a lonely pass, and hacking her to pieces, 
tied her remains on a camel, and sent it off with a parting cut. 
The camel trotted in mad career all over the country, and where- 
ever a piece of Arroweilo fell, the pious native as he passed said 
a prayer and threw a stone “ to keep her down.” The chief use 
of these cairns now is to form cover for robbers when watching 
for caravans ; and my brother and I found they made very re- 
cognisable points when seen through the telescope of a theodolite. 
At Badwein ( i.e . “ Big Tank ”) in the Dolbahanta country, 
one hundred and fifty miles, as the crow flies, from Berbera, we 
found a tank forty feet deep and a hundred and twenty yards in 
diameter, evidently excavated by human labour. Hear it was a 
temple or large house with walls still standing at a height of ten 
feet, and the space enclosed was so large that a party of horse- 
men could ride into it. 
The Dolbahanta told us that before the G&llas a race of men 
occupied the country who could read and write. Unfortunately 
none of their literary work was visible, as we examined many 
remains for inscriptions, but found none. One man, for a small 
fee, took us four miles out of our way to read an inscription, but 
the result was not promising, for we only found on a tombstone 
some scratches, perhaps twenty years old, evidently made by an 
idle sheep-boy. All these discoveries of ancient remains go to 
prove that the elevated parts of Somaliland (not semi-desert 
Guban) were once capable of permanent settlement under a 
more secure form of society than at present exists. 
The deserted village of Dagahbur in Ogdden is an example 
which shows how settlement and cultivation have been success- 
fully begun and abandoned because of the insecurity resulting 
from inter-tribal feuds. At Dagahbur there were formerly many 
square miles of jowdri cultivation, which have been abandoned 
within the last few years, and now there is only left an immense 
area of stubble and the ruins of the village. Dagahbur used to 
be a thriving settlement of one thousand five hundred inhabit- 
ants, with trade caravans plying regularly across the Haud to 
Hargeisa and Berbera ; and now not a hut is left. 
The fact is, that although the natural conditions are suitable 
to the settlement of large tracts of country, and though many 
of the people are willing enough to engage in cultivation, yet 
the tribes and sub-tribes are so incessantly at feud, that the 
