First Footsteps in East Africa by Burton Richard F

Author:Burton, Richard F. [Burton, Richard F.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-06-05T04:00:00+00:00

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1 The Ashantis at Customs’ time (rites done on the death of men of rank) run across the royal threshold to escape being seized and sacrificed to wet the grave with slaves’ blood (2000 prisoners are killed when the King “makes a custom” at ancestral tombs); possibly the trace of a pagan rite is still preserved by Moslem Harar, where it is now held a mark of respect and always exacted from the citizens.

2 I afterwards learned that when a man neglects a summons his door is removed to the royal court-yard on the first day; on the second, it is confiscated. The door is a valuable and venerable article in this part of Africa. According to Bruce, Ptolemy Euergetes engraved it upon the Axum Obelisk for the benefit of his newly conquered Æthiopian subjects, to whom it had been unknown.

3 In Abyssinia, according to the Lord of Geesh, this is a mark of royal familiarity and confidence.

4 About seven years ago the Hajj Sharmarkay of Zayla chose as his agent at Harar, one of the Amir’s officers, a certain Hajj Janitay. When this man died Sharmarkay demanded an account from his sons; at Berberah they promised to give it, but returning to Harar they were persuaded, it is believed, by the Jirad Mohammed, to forget their word. Upon this Sharmarkay’s friends and relations, incited by one Husayn, a Somali who had lived many years at Harar in the Amir’s favour, wrote an insulting letter to the Jirad, beginning with, “No peace be upon thee, and no blessings of Allah, thou butcher! son of a butcher, &c., &c.!” and concluding with a threat to pinion him in the market-place as a warning to men. Husayn carried the letter, which at first excited general terror; when, however, the attack did not take place, the Amir Abu Bakr imprisoned the imprudent Somali till he died. Sharmarkay by way of reprisals, persuaded Alu, son of Sahlah Salaseh, king of Shoa, to seize about three hundred Harari citizens living in his dominions and to keep them two years in durance.

The Amir Abu Bakr is said on his deathbed to have warned his son against the Jirad. When Ahmad reported his father’s decease to Zayla, the Hajj Sharmarkay ordered a grand Maulid or Mass in honour of the departed. Since that time, however, there has been little intercourse and no cordiality between them.

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