The Highlands of EthiopiaHarris, William Cornwallis, Sir
History
The Highlands of Ethiopia
Harris, William Cornwallis, Sir
Ethiopia -- Description and travel
As the tedious road wound on over basalt, basaltic lava, and amygdaloid,
the sun, waxing momentarily more intensely powerful, was reflected with
destructive and stifling fervour from slates of snow-white sea-limestone
borne on their tops. Still elevated far above the level of the ocean, a
number of fossil shells, of species now extinct, were discovered; a deep
cleft by the wayside, presenting the unequivocal appearance of the lower
crater of a volcano, situated on the high basaltic range above, whence
the lava stream had been disgorged through apertures burst in the rocks,
but which had re-closed after the violence of the eruption had subsided.
Dafari, a wild broken chasm at some distance from the road, usually
contains abundance of rain-water in its rocky pool, but having already
been long drained to the dregs, it offered no temptation to halt.
Another most severe and trying declivity had therefore to be overcome,
ere the long and sultry march was at an end. It descended by craggy
precipices many hundred feet below the level of the sea, to the small
close sandy plain of Mooya, on the borders of the Lake--a positive
_Jehannam_, where the gallant captain of the "Constance" [Lieutenant
Wilmot Christopher, I N] had already been some hours ensconced under the
leafless branches of one poor scrubby thorn, which afforded the only
screen against the stifling blast of the sirocco, and the merciless rays
of the refulgent orb overhead.
Adyli, a deep mysterious cavern at the further extremity of the plain,
is believed by the credulous to be the shaft leading to a subterranean
gallery which extends to the head of Goobut el Kharab. Deeni, most
expert and systematic of liars, even went so far as to assert that he
had seen through it the waters of the bay, although he admitted it to be
the abode of "gins and efreets," whose voices are heard throughout the
night, and who carry off the unwary traveller to devour him without
remorse. The latest instance on record was of one Shehem, who was
compelled by the weariness of his camel to fall behind the caravan, and,
when sought by his comrades, was nowhere to be found, notwithstanding
that his spear and shield had remained untouched. No tidings of the
missing man having been obtained to the present hour, he is believed by
his disconsolate friends to have furnished a meal to the gins in Adyli;
but it seems not improbable that some better clue to his fate might be
afforded by the Adrusi, an outcast clan of the Debeni, acknowledging no
chief, though recognising in some respects the authority of the Sultan
of Tajura, and who wander over the country for evil, from Sagallo to the
Great Salt Lake.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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