First Footsteps in
East Africa – Sir Richard Burton
Sir Richard Francis Burton gained notoriety by travelling to
Mecca and Medina in the early 1850s. His journey to another Muslm holy city in the Somali country,
Harar, in 1854-55 is one of his forgotten books. As far as he can believed,
Burton’s chronicles of hard travelling are entertaining and idiosyncratic, to
say the least. Here he criticizes millet beer and local indolence.
I tried this mixture several times,
and found it detestable: the taste is sour, and it flies directly to the head,
in consequence of being mixed with some poisonous bark. It is served up in
gourd bottles upon a basket of holcus heads, and strained through a pledget of
cotton, fixed across the narrow mouth, into cups of the same primitive
material: the drinkers sit around their liquor, and their hilarity argues its
intoxicating properties. In the morning they arise with headaches and heavy
eyes; but these symptoms, which we, an industrious race, deprecate, are not
disliked by the Somal—they promote sleep and give something to occupy the
vacant mind.
I cannot vouch for the accuracy of Burton’s descriptions of
Somali manners and society. But his personal recollections, I think, retain
their brilliance and power. Here he recounts thirst near the end of the
journey:
Our toil was rendered doubly
toilsome by the Eastern travellers’ dread—the demon of Thirst rode like Care
behind us. For twenty-four hours we did not taste water, the sun parched our
brains, the mirage mocked us at every turn, and the effect was a species of
monomania. As I jogged along with eyes closed against the fiery air, no image
unconnected with the want suggested itself. Water ever lay before me—water
lying deep in the shady well—water in streams bubbling icy from the rock—water
in pellucid lakes inviting me to plunge and revel in their treasures. Now an
Indian cloud was showering upon me fluid more precious than molten pearl, then
an invisible hand offered a bowl for which the mortal part would gladly have
bartered years of life. Then—drear contrast!—I opened my eyes to a heat-reeking
plain, and a sky of that eternal metallic blue so lovely to painter and poet,
so blank and deathlike to us, whose [Greek kalon] was
tempest, rain-storm, and the huge purple nimbus. I tried to talk—it was in
vain, to sing in vain, vainly to think; every idea was bound up in one subject,
water.
This expedition had a violent ending. Near Berbera natives
attacked their party. Lt. William Stroyan was killed and Lt. John Hanning Speke
was severely wounded. Burton himself had a javelin piece his jaw, which caused
the loss of four teeth. The book omits
that an official board of inquiry blamed Burton for excessive confidence and
ignoring warnings of danger.
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