II 
THE NOMADIC LIFE 
37 
“ Cabul ” tent at mid-day, in my camp at Malgni in the maritime 
mountains. As we marched to the camp where this heat was 
registered, several of the men were bleeding from the nose, and 
on my asking them the reason, they said cheerfully, “ Oh, 
Allah makes our noses bleed to cool our heads.” The Somalis 
do not wear anything on their heads, and the close-shaven skulls 
of the older men are entirely exposed to the hot sun. 
Caravans coming down from a distance of ten or twelve days’ 
march — that is, from Milmil or from this side of Gerlogubi— 
generally make two trips to the coast each year. For the first 
trip they come down from the interior late in the Haga , or about 
September, leaving Berbera again for the interior in the Bair , 
about December. They then come on a second trip in Jilcil , 
bringing down animals, hides, ivory, feathers, gum, and ghee ; 
and return in Kalil , taking up chiefly rice and cloth. 
From distant parts of Ogdden, or the Webbe, caravans make 
one trip a year, coming down at the end of Haga and returning 
in Kalil or the beginning of Gu. Many smaller caravans, coming 
from the nearer parts of the Haud and Ogo, and engaged in 
petty barter, make more than two journeys to and from Berbera. 
Those coming from Faf in Og4den make the journey in, say, 
fifteen days’ fast marching without halts. The gedi, or march, 
is usually from four to five hours, ten to twelve miles being 
covered. The start is made at 4 a.m., marching goes on till 9 
a.m., the midday halt giving the camels time to feed till 1 p.m., 
when another march is made till about 5 p.m. 
Eastern tribes make longer marches than the Gadabursi 
and Esa. The longest are made over waterless or uninhabited 
country, while in the inhabited tracts the caravan dawdles at 
every encampment. Our men used to advise us to make one 
long march instead of two short ones, but we found it did not 
benefit the camels, the only saving being in trouble to the men, 
as the camp had to be formed once instead of twice. 
In the hot weather on the Berbera maritime plain, the best 
time to march is at night, especially if there is a moon ; the 
caravans swing along at a great pace in the cool of the night, 
especially if the paths are good and there is not too much 
jungle. Caravans leaving Berbera in the evening march 
throughout the night, reaching Laferug, thirty miles distant, 
before halting. 
At Berbera the camels are handed over, by arriving caravans, 
to the Esa Musa sub-tribe of the Habr Awal, or other nomadic 
