Note 4 — Chapter I · ETHNOLOGY
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Most Somális who pray a great deal do it, I am convinced, for their reputation’s sake; and most of the religious observances are to “show off,”—a thing the Somáli loves to do.
An instance of this is the horror of dogs. I have seen a Somáli, when thinking himself unobserved, playing with a pariah dog; but if a Somáli servant, in a house at Aden, when waiting at table, should be brushed against by a perfectly clean English fox-terrier, he will as likely as not drop the dish which he is carrying, and say that he has been bitten. All this horror is acted for the benefit of the other servants.