arguing for eternity

They were always hungry but they ate very well. They were hungry for breakfast which they ate at the cafe, ordering brioche and cafe au lait and eggs, and the type of preserve that they chose and the manner in which the eggs were to be cooked was an excitement. They were always so hungry for the breakfast that the girl often had a headache until the coffee came. But the coffee took the headache away. She took her coffee without sugar and the young man was learning to remember that.
Hemingway, The Garden of Eden

This much is truth – we know it. As for the tribes, their sources, their intermarriage and mingling that produced offshoots – these can be argued for eternity. The lineage of their people lies lost somewhere beneath the khareef-fed spurts of growth on the southern slopes of the mountains, the sand-ravaged wooden sandakas in Hashman and Mitan and the camel pens at Tudho. In a way, though, this is missing the point. The real hero of this story is the people, however many names they divided themselves into. From the Qara to the Jebbalis, the Mahra to the Shahra, the Kathiris and all the others: the Batahira, the Mashayikh, the Bara’ima, Batahira, Harasis, Hikman, Din and Hawashim. They are all inheritors to a collective history and culture, the richness of which has been the constant through the coming and going of the khareef, the rise and fall of the frankincense kingdoms and the migrations, disputes, divisions and intermarriage of the people.

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