V 
RECONNAISSANCE OF ABYSSINIAN BORDER 125 
They said that now the English, their masters, had come 
the Abyssinians would leave off raiding their camels and 
carrying off their women. Many of the chiefs came to our 
tents begging for written testimonials, saying that they were 
sure a scrap of paper written on by an Englishman was enough 
alone to keep back an Abyssinian army. The women and 
children hung round my camel and my brother’s pony in 
crowds, crying out, “Now it’s all right; the English have 
come.” 
Then came the question of presents. The people had 
brought us a few sheep and a donkey, and long rows of their 
milk -vessels, which are prettily decorated with white shells. 
We picked out an akil to whom Sheikh Mattar of Hargeisa 
had given us a letter of introduction ; then we put into his 
hands several white tobes and two khaili tobes, and asked him 
to settle with the chiefs of clans. There arose a tremendous 
clamour, each clan having sent an advocate to represent it in 
the scramble for tobes, which occurred in the river-bed below. 
An indescribable uproar continued until nightfall, the clamouring 
“ wise men ” squatting on the ground in circles, looking for all 
the world like vultures with their skinny necks and shaven 
skulls, clawing with lean fingers at the presents spread out on 
the sand. There was a scuffle down at the wells, across the 
river, where two men had retired to settle an old feud. After 
throwing their spears, they closed and stabbed at each other, 
the spears striking the shields with a hollow thud, which we 
could hear from our tents three hundred yards away ; but 
they were subsequently parted by a posse of relations. 
One of the things which pleased the Rer Ali most was my 
Arab pony, which I had taken from Abdul Kader’s stables in 
Bombay to test the Somffli climate. My brother mounted him 
and tried a friendly gallop with one or two of the tribesmen in 
succession, and he proved, to their great wonder, faster than 
any pony which the Rer Ali could bring against him. He 
afterwards beat many Somali ponies all over the country, and 
gained a great reputation, although I had only bought him as 
a useful animal up to weight, and he would be considered 
quite slow among Arab ponies of his height, which was about 
14.1. I have often since been identified by SomMis as the 
owner of “ that Hindi pony which could gallop like the wind.” 
By nightfall we were glad that the long dusty day of 
ceremony was over, and next morning, when a number of Rer 
