d four principal wives, and an army of 200 men armed chiefly
with daggers. Burton describes the streets of Harar as dirty narrow
lanes heaped with garbage, and the houses as situated at the bottom of
courtyards, closed by gates of holcus stalks. The town was proud of its
learning and sanctity, and venerated the memory of several very holy and
verminous saints. Neither sex possessed personal attractions, and the
head-dresses of the women seen from behind resembled a pawnbroker's
sign, except that they were blue instead of gilt. The people lived
chiefly on holcus, and a narcotic called "jat," made by pounding the
tender twigs of a tree of the same name. "It produced in them," says
Burton, "a manner of dreamy enjoyment, which exaggerated by time and
distance, may have given rise to that splendid myth the Lotos and the
Lotophagi. [158] Their chief commodity was coffee, their favourite drink
an aphrodisiac made of honey dissolved in hot water, and strained and
fermented with the bark of a tree called kudidah." Although unmolested,
Burton had no wish to remain long at Harar, and when on 13th January
he and his party took their departure it was with a distinct feeling of
relief.

32. From Harar to Berbera. 13th Jan. 1855-5th Feb. 1855.

At Sagharrah they found again the pusillanimous "End of Time," and
at Wilensi they were rejoined by Shahrazad, Dunyazad and the one-eyed
Kalandar. Persons who met Burton and his friends enquired Irish-like
if they were the party who had been put to death by the Amir of Harar.
Everyone, indeed, was amazed to see them not only alive, but uninjured,
and the Frank's temerity became the talk of the desert. Burton now put
the two women, the Kalandar, the camels, and the baggage, under the care
of a guide, and sent them to Zeila, while he himself and the men made
straight for Berbera. The journey, which led them past Moga's tooth
[159] and Gogaysa, was a terrible one, for the party suffered tortures
from thirst, and at one time it seemed as though all must perish. By
good fortune, however, they ultimately came upon some pools. Any fear
that might have haunted them, lest the water should be poisonous, was
soon dispelled, for it contained a vast number of tadpoles and insects,
and was therefore considered quite harmless and suitable for drinking.
For many hours they again plodded on beneath a brazen sky. Again thirst
assailed them; and, like Ishmael in the desert of Zin, they were ready
to cast