IV 
GO VERNMENT EX PL ORA TIONS 
109 
We left the Gadabursi and entered the Esa country, 
cautiously skirting Biyo-Kab6ba without going to the wells. 
We found the Esa tribes in a state of ferment because of the 
fort the Abyssinians were building. 
At 3 p.m. on 30th September, at Arroweina, there arrived 
a grizzly-bearded old patriarch called Mudun Golab, an Akil 
of the Odahghub, Her Gedi, Esa Ad. 1 He made an impressive 
speech, saying, “ It is a lie that any of the Esa countenance the 
Abyssinian occupation of Biyo-Kab6ba. We all hate them 
and do not want them. The English and the Esa are brothers, 
and we are the subjects of your Government. So we ask you 
now to rid us of these intruders. They wish to treat us as they 
treated the Geri, to seize our flocks, kill our people, and burn 
our karias. They wish to settle in our country and oust us. 
We wall not have it. 5 ’ He said that the Esa were encamped 
round the Biyo-Kaboba fort, and that they were holding a 
council, one party, consisting chiefly of young men, wishing to 
attack at once. He asked us to wait and hear the result of the 
council, and convey news to the British authorities. 
On 2nd October, the council not yet having come to a 
decision, we continued our journey through the sterile trap 
country to the north, and then turning to the east, skirted the 
Bur Ad Bange as far as Ali Maan before again turning north 
for the march to Zeila. 
On 5th October, as w r e were arriving, late on a dark night, 
at Hemdl under the Bur Ad Bange, we got into very dense 
and high gudd forest, bordering the edge of the Hemal sand- 
river. Our camels were pushing their way through the centre 
of this when we heard the scream of an elephant about a 
hundred yards to our left, followed by that of another a little 
in front. The caravan bunched up in the narrow path, and we 
all held our breath to listen. Our elephant-rifle was carefully 
packed up in one of the camel-loads ; the jungle was stirring all 
round us as the herd moved off. They seemed to have gone 
away, and the camels had begun to resume their march, when 
we were thrown into confusion by hearing a crash, as some old 
cow — for it is generally these that are the most vicious— charged 
towards us with a scream, and then stood a short distance 
away behind a tree. Some of the men whispered that they could 
see her, but though my brother and I strained our eyes to the 
1 The Esa sub-tribes are grouped into two great divisions — the Esa Ad or 
White Esa, and the Esa Madoba or Black Esa, 
