Nothing intimidated by this reverse, and joined by fresh allies from the coast, the Woema were not long in renewing the attack; and the whole of the Adaiel tribes who rally under the standard of "the white house," making common cause, the Mudaito sustained a murderous defeat, when their stronghold, which had maintained its integrity unimpaired for so many centuries, fell at last into the hands of their hereditary foe. A long term of years elapsed, but the hearts of the scions of the "red house" still rankled under this disaster; and, bent upon retaliation, the assembled clans, designing to plunder the now decayed sea-port whence their Arab invaders had been furnished, made a rapid inroad into the country of the Eesah Somauli. Unprepared, the tribe fled before the host in dismay, but presently recovering from the panic created by the sudden burst of war, rallied in great numbers, fell furiously upon the foe, and left not one marauding Mudaito alive to tell the issue of the disastrous day. The "great battle," as this signal rout is still termed, was about three years ago fought within sight of Zeyla, on the plains of Takoosha, now white with the skeletons of a tribe. "Brave men are these Mudaito," continued the old warrior, playing carelessly with the hilt of his creese, which was seldom suffered to repose quietly in his girdle; "but they are not to be compared with us. _Hamdu-lillah_, `Praise be unto the Lord,' I slew their sheikh with my own hand; and here is the identical scratch that I received in the scuffle. As for the Eesah," he concluded, "with their childish bows and arrows, they are sad cowards. One Dankali spear is an over-match for fifty of their best marksmen in a fair fight; and I have myself dealt single-handed with six, although the villains came like thieves in the dark." Ibrahim Shehem was requested to reconcile this character with the issue of the great battle just recounted, wherein the despised tribe had so signalised itself. "That," quoth he of Tajura, "was a dastardly surprise; and _Wullah_, had I been the invader with a handful of Danakil spearmen, there would have been another tale to tell."