An Abyssinian Quest By Wilfred Thesiger It took me six weeks to obtain permission to re-enter the Dankali country to resume my search for the end of the Hawash River, which was long reputed to "disappear" in the heart of the Aussa country. Maram Mohamet, Sheik of Badhu, who was then detained at Afdem, had refused to hold himself responsible for my safety while in Badhu, which accounted for my recail when I first set forth. However, an agreement was reached with the Abyssinian Government by which, in return for an escort of 15 rifles, I gave them a letter saying that they had done all in their power to safe- guard the expedition and that should anything happen to me they could not be held responsible. I started off again on February 7, accom- panied by Maram Mohamet, who had been released tct come with me down to Badhu. The Sheik of Badhu is always the eldest male of the two ruling families of the Asboura and Badogalet sub-tribes of the Madima. On being invested with his office he changes his name, and is believed to receive the power of controlling the rain; the Dankalis are convinced that it always rains on this day even from a clear sky. His installation ceremony is interesting. The Sheik is clad in a red and white cloth. He is smeared with ghee and may not now put his feet on the ground. He is carried in a special chair some 200 yards towards the rising sun and back; the right of carrying the chair, as of clothing him, is hereditary. On his return the chair is placed on a bed outside his hut. Then earth from the summit of Ayelou is rubbed upon his hands. earth from beneath a large shola tree upon his feet, and clay from the bottom of the river on his forehead. He is then saturated with ghee and the crowd fight to touch him. TRIBAL CEREMONIES For a week he will not drink water or take a bath. They bring a red and a white goat, and two bulls, one red and the other white. The Mesara then lift up the red bull, holding it over him while they cut its throat so that the blood flows down upon him. The Asoda. then kill the red goat in like fashion. The Sheik's son or nearest male relative kills the white bull and the white goat and his tribe smear themselves with the blood. More ghee is poured over the Sheik, first by the men, next by the women, and finally by the children. When the ceremony is over every one indulges in an orgy of feasting. Among the Asaaimara a man must marry his father's sister's daughter if possible, and should the boy be too young the girl is given away temporarily to someone else by the elders of the tribe. When the boy is old enough the girl is married to him, the temporary husband paying a fixed number of cows for each child he has had in the meanwhile, these children being handed over to the new husband. The general belief that a man may not marry until he has killed is incorrect, but- every boy after being initiated into the tribe will endeavour to kill and mutilate a man as soon as chance offers. His standing in the tribe depends upon the number of his trophies, and ten will give him the right to wear a coveted iron bracelet. Even a new-born man child is accounted a kill. An elaborate system of decorations displays his prowess to his contemporaries, and a line of stones upright before his monument hands down his fame to posterity. The most general method of denoting kills is to attach a brass-bound leather thong to knife or rifle, one for each trophy taken. But no man may wear a coloured loin cloth, a comb or a feather in his hair, nor decorate his knife with brass or silver until he has killed once. Two kills will entitle him to split his ears should he wish to do so. It is difficult to exaggerate the im- portance attached by the Dankalis to the killing of a man, and many raids are undertaken with nio other object in view. On returning from a raid those who have not yet killed must supply the animals for the feast, and submit to con- siderable ragging. Inevitably one's men are re- garded by the Dankalis as so many potential trophies, and to avoid accidents it is necessary to prevent any straggling on the march. PREPARING THE RAIDS Before the Dankalis undertake a raid, and after the yearly initiation ceremonies, they hold an oracle dance, or the dance of the geneli as they call it. Unlike the Somalis the Dankalis have few dances, and those they have are mono- tonous. I saw the geneli dance on three occa- sions. The " ge#ieli," who is often a woman, stands in the centte of a ring of dancers covered to the eyes with a sha,iintoa. The dancers clap their hatids and chant, bending more and more forward, but never moving their feet, while the clapping and chanting gets faster and faster. Suddenly the generi prophesies and the dancers straighten up and listen and then chant back the words just spoken. They have absolLUte faith in their geneli, but ctUriously enough the geneii have not utilized their powers to assume any special position in the tribe. They reihain ordinary men and women possessed of this peculiat gift of foreseeing the future. There is, however, a formn of' witch doctor whose position is hereditary. He is con- sulted in times of crisis and he presents the young men with the leather bands which they WVeat round necks, wrists, or ankles to bring them luck in killing. He impresses the tribes- men with some simple conjuring, but his position does riot appear to 'be of any great political imnportance. He presides during the annual pil- grimage to the sUlmmit of Ayelou, undertaken when the rains are over, to take part in which Dankalis come frojii as far as Aussa. I climbed Ayelou adid found on the summit a rectangular enclosure 20 yards long by 10 yards across. A roughiy constructed wall, 2ft. high, was much fallen down. Hete sheep are sacri- ficed and prayers are offered for good health, t)rospetity among the herds, atid success in War. Though the Dankalis are Moslens, in gadhu Islam sits but lightly upon them, ard they dis- gusted my Somalis by eating hippopotamus meat, of which they are inordinatcly fond. This pilgrimage to hiih mountain summits is common throughout Abyssinia, but here it is undertaken bv a people untouched in any way by Abyssinian influence. Throughout my stay in the Dankali country I was greatly interested in their monuments and tombs. The monuments known as dg& vary from a simple ring of stones tg ain elaborate and carefully con- struct-et stone circle 5ft. higlh and 5oft. across. Two or more people are often commemorated by one das, in which case each man has his own doorway, with the line of upright stones before it represent- ing his kills. These das are invariably situated in a conspicuous place by the roadside. The dead are either Ouried according to the Mohamedan law in a grave known as dico or more commonly are placed on a platform of stones and walled up inside a large, hollow mound known as waidella, the same waidella often serving for a whole family. The origin of this method of burial I believe to have been the impos- sibility of.aigging a grave in the greater part of tIis country. A large upright stone or small turret is sometimes placed on the top of the mound to scare away hyenas wYthen they attempt to dig out the corpse. In Aussa this turret has lost its original purpose and has been incorporated into the vaidella itself, radically changing its con- struction. Among the Adaaimara of French Somaliland, but not of Adaou, only men killed in battle, those dying in an unin- hiabited spot where there are insufficient people to dig a grave, and women dead in childbirth are buried in waidellas. Other- wise the dead are buried in the Moslem fashion in elaborate graves known as k-abare, which fulfil the functions of both the dico and the das. The family of the dead man will dig a circular hole close to the grave which they call the mnosqutidi, and round which they gather to pray. -Having praved for the dead they decorate the grave with branches. Where a man draws his last breath the Dankalis erect a pile of stones known as an aki. BURIED ALIVE Sometimes one passes a large heap of stones by the roadside, and the Dankalis with you will cast a stone, crying out " Hess Hess," which means " Preserve us from this." It is where an unmarried girl has had a child or, in one famous case, where a brother and sister having com- mnitted incest the child was born. The child is buried alive and should the girl die in childbirth the man is killed. Curiously enough, to commit adultery is not a serious crime, and is punished only with a fine or a prolonged ducking in the river, a favourite punishment at Badhu. Leaving Badhu I marched through Kadabadhu, where the country along the river changes from the grass plains below Ayelou to extensive swamp and open forest, submerged during a great part of the year. Crossing a low range of sand- stone bills we entered Borharamala. The Adaaimara here were already suffering badly from the drought, and like all fron- tier districts it was particularly lawless. Each night the balabat who was with us stood up and shouted into the dark the traditional warning to anyone lurking around, which absolves the camp from all responsibility should they shoot anyone during the hours of darkness. A series of ravines along the river's edge obliged me to enter the desert to the east, called Adaou, or the "place of thirst." Here the country was featureless and on all sides were endless low hills, whose composition varied from coarsest gravel to fine sand. What little vegetation there was consisted of the ubiquitous wait- a-bit thorn. We struck the river again after five days at Abakaborso, on the edge of the Karayou plain, having marched mostly by night and only spent one day without water. At dawn on the fourth day I had an unforgettable view of towering moun- tains, very distant but just touched by the rising sun, mountains of whose cxistence I had-heard no word. (To be conlinuted. Tlhe firs article t appeared yest&rdlay) | AN ABYSSINIAN QUEST II.-CUSTOMS OF THE DANKALI TRIBAL CEREMONIES