heat-reeking, tenanted by the Ísa, and a meet habitat for savages. Such to us, at least, appeared the land of Adel.[1] At midday we descried the Ras al-Bir,—Headland of the Well,—the promontory which terminates the bold Tajurrah range, under which lie the sleeping waters of the Maiden's Sea.[2] During the day we rigged out an awning, and sat in the shade smoking and chatting merrily, for the weather was not much hotter than our English summer seas. Some of the crew tried praying; but prostrations are not easily made on board ship, and Al-Islam, as Umar shrewdly suspected, was not made for a seafaring race. At length the big red sun sank slowly behind the curtain of sky-blue rock, where lies the not yet "combusted" village of Tajurrah.[3] We lay down to rest with the light of day, and had the satisfaction of closing our eyes upon a fair though captious breeze.
On the morning of the 3ist October, we entered the Zayla Creek, which gives so much trouble to native craft. We passed, on the right, the low island of
- ↑ Adel, according to M. Krapf, derived its name from the Ad Ali, a tribe of the Afar or Danakil nation, erroneously used by Arab synecdoche for the whole race. Mr. Johnston (Travels in Southern Abyssinia, ch. 1) more correctly derives it from Adule, a city which, as proved by the monument which bears its name, existed in the days of Ptolemy Euergetes (B.C. 247–222), had its own dynasty, and boasted of a conquerer who overcame the Troglodytes, Sabæans, Homerites, &c., and pushed his conquests as far as the frontier of Egypt. Mr. Johnston, however, incorrectly translates Barr al-'Ajam "land of fire," and seems to confound Avalites and Adulis.
- ↑ Bahr al-Banattin, the Bay of Tajurrah.
- ↑ A certain German missionary, well known in this part of the world, exasperated by the seizure of a few dollars and a claim to the droit d'aubaine, advised the authorities of Aden to threaten the "combustion" of Tajurrah. The measure would have been equally unjust and unwise. A traveller, even a layman, is bound to put up peacefully with such trifles; and to threaten "combustion" without being prepared to carry out the threat is the readiest way to secure contempt.
