Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals. Minor typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected without note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have been retained as printed. The illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up paragraphs, thus the page number of the illustration might not match the page number in the List of Illustrations. Page 48: "The transcriber has added the word "off"--"Fined one rupee each, and cautioned that they will not get off lightly next time." Also, "means" has been replaced with "mean"--"to the mean unhappy wretches". * * * * * [Illustration: title page] [Illustration: BURALLEH ROBLEH AND HIS EXCELLENCY. ("_Personages._") [_Frontispiece._] SUN, SAND AND SOMALS LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A DISTRICT COMMISSIONER IN BRITISH SOMALILAND BY MAJOR H. RAYNE, M.B.E., M.C. _WITH 12 PLATES FROM PHOTOGRAPHS_ LONDON H. F. & G. WITHERBY 326 HIGH HOLBORN, W.C. 1921 INTRODUCTION Africa is gradually becoming so civilised that there are few places left where the adventurer (the man who holds a human life as cheaply as the sportsman holds that of a wild pheasant) may hope to flourish. But for such an individual there remains on the Eastern Abyssinian border a territory, difficult to penetrate, inhabited by wild warlike tribes, through whom can be carried out a policy of murder and rapine against the peaceful native tribes under British protection. And on the Abyssinian borders you may find him, ever ready to organise a wild raid South or East (or West for that matter) into the administered territories of the British, whose sentinel-outposts are ever watching and waiting to turn him from his prey. Of the tribes inhabiting this wild border-land I have selected from many but one to speak of--the Somali of British Somaliland. The Somali has deeply religious tendencies and is the stoutest of Mussulmans. In addition to the Mahomedan code, which he obeys implicitly, he has a complicated tribal code of his own. He knows much, and practises what he knows, of the old Jewish and Biblical hygienic laws. He recognises the right of man to slay, providing he pays--one hundred camels for a man, fifty for a woman. The Somali respects a woman, and reverences chastity. The Somali wanders afar. You will find him working as deck hand, fireman, or steward, on all the great liners trading to the East. I know of a Somali tobacconist in Cardiff, a Somali mechanic in New York, and a Somali trader in Bombay, the latter of whom speaks French, English, and Italian fluently. The Somali considers that British magistrates are appointed to his country solely to relieve the monotony of his life, and he pesters theirs with all kinds of cases, both petty and intricate.