Somali-land, an eastern projection of Africa, washed by the Gulf of Aden on the north and by the Indian Ocean on the south-east; the western boundary may be defined by a line drawn south from Zeyla, on the Gulf of Aden, through Harar to the River Jub or Juba. Besides this river the only considerable stream is the Webi-Shebeyli, which, however, does not reach the Indian Ocean, its waters being lost in the sands near the southern extremity of the region. The country is apparently an undulating plateau, in very many parts parched and barren; though in the rainy seasons (two of two or three months' duration each) numerous swamps are formed. Game and wild animals—elephant, hippopotamus, lion, leopard, crocodile, antelopes, water-buck, monkeys, ostriches, vultures, marabout storks, &c.—are generally plentiful. The vegetation is on the whole arid, though in suitable localities there grow luxuriant grasses, mimosas, acacias, gum-bearing trees, palms, sycamores, cactus, aloe, and others. The inhabitants, the Somal, numbering probably half a million, are for the most part a pastoral people, who lead the life described as characteristic of the Old Testament patriarchs. They have herds of camels, sheep, and oxen, and keep horses and goats. Fond of liberty and warlike, they are ruled by a number of petty chiefs, and are jealous of strangers entering their territory (on which account it is almost wholly unknown); nevertheless, they are said to be a light-hearted, merry, affectionate race, though quick-tempered, and in their wrath savage and cruel. They are Mohammedans in religion. Ethnically they belong to the Hamitic stock, and are closely akin to the Galla and the Abyssinians; but they are not a pure race, for there is a strong blending of Semitic (Arab) blood in them, and easily discernible traces of Negro as well. What trade there is in the natural products (myrrh and frankincense, hides, ostrich-feathers, coffee, salt, &c.) finds an outlet through the ports on the coast, principally through Berbera and Zeyla on the shore of the Gulf of Aden.
The Somali coast protectorate of Britain extends from Ras (Cape) Jibuti, on the west of Zeyla, to Ras Hafun, south of Cape Guardafui, and includes the towns of Zeyla, Berbera, Bulhar, and Karam. The cattle, sheep, hides, ostrich-feathers, gums, &c. exported reach an annual value of £600,000. Annexed by Egypt in 1875, this territory has been under British protection since 1884. An arrangement with Italy in 1894, and with Abyssinia in 1897, delimited the British protectorate (68,000 sq. m.). The French call Obock (q.v.), &c., Côte des Somalis.
See F. L. James, The Unknown Horn of Africa (1888); Wolverton, Five Months' Sport in Somali-land (1894); Swayne, Seventeen Trips through Somaliland (1895); Donaldson Smith, Through Unknown African Countries (1897); E. N. Buxton, Short Stalks (1898); F. B. Pearce, Rambles in Lion-Land (1898); and for the (non-Bantu) Somali language, the grammar and English-Somali dictionary of the Franciscans Larajasse and Sampont (1898).