VI 
THROUGH SOMALILAND AND ABYSSINIA 
meeting of the tribesmen, at which he preached a Jihad or holy 
war against Abyssinia. On this day, which was also that of the 
arrival of my survey at this place, a great equestrian display was 
given by horsemen of the Eer Ali tribe to Sheikh Sufi ; and he 
preached for hours to the crowd squatting in the sandy river- 
bed. With my brother I stood at the Sheikh’s side for a time. 
He was polite to us, and asked us to listen to his words, as they 
were on important matters. Our interpreter helped us to get 
their drift. 
Next day, after this mullah had gone, the same horsemen 
gave a display to ourselves, the mounted minstrels uttering the 
Mot , io mot (“Hail ! and again hail ! ”) or royal salute accorded 
only to a sultdn or to the British. 
As the survey party (which consisted merely of my brother 
and myself, and an escort of armed camel-men whom we had 
drilled) left Milmil, the crowds of men, women, and children 
followed us, clutching hold of our camel bridles and calling out, 
“ The English are good ; lead us against the Abyssinians.” 
A year later, after my first visit to Eas Makunan, I was back 
again among these tribes, on my way to the Webbe Shabeyli, 
and rode Eas Makunan’s mule, and the significant remarks the 
people made are recorded in the chapter dealing with that 
journey. There is abundant evidence that the Somalis had no 
quarrel with the British ; an Englishman could give a bond for 
wages for trifling services rendered at a distance of three hundred 
miles inland, and pay on presentation at the coast. This is the 
ordinary experience of British visitors to primitive races ; but 
the Somdli went further — he had a genuine admiration for the 
British, whether sportsmen, officials, or Government. The 
mullahs were the traveller’s best friends ; we gave them Korans 
and Mahommedan bead rosaries, and they blessed our expeditions. 
But after the fall of Harar the important arms-question, on 
which I cannot lay too great a stress, was always present. 
Modern weapons had for some years been pouring into Abyssinia 
from sources other than British, while for the Somalis, the 
people of our Hinterland, we had, by a wise general rule of 
African policy, to say nothing of treaties, been unable to allow 
a single musket through our ports. 
But the Som&lis do not go into the larger issues, and they 
said, “You have taken our coast ; either protect us against the 
Abyssinians or let us import arms with which we can protect 
ourselves.” 
