The Preservation of Big Game 



They are visited periodically, and the contents 

 are excellent at the end of a long march if one 

 can by good luck make friends with the owners. 

 Dirty and uncivilized to a degree, these people 

 are the least known of all East African savage 

 life. No, I think they are Nature's children 

 and almost thorough sportsmen after their own 

 lights. The Somali Midgan usually hunts with 

 a pack of mongrel pie-dogs, and his chief object 

 is the oryx. The skin covering the withers of 

 this handsome antelope is a marketable article 

 all over the country, as, being extremely thick, 

 it is exclusively used for making the little round 

 shield to be seen on every man's arm in the 

 country. Some are embossed in rude patterns, 

 others painted in red and black inside with sen- 

 tences from the Koran, and others so splendid, 

 according to their owners' ideas, that they are 

 always kept clean and nice, tied up in " meri- 

 kani ' for high days and holidays. These are 

 sportsmen too to a certain degree, and anyhow it 

 would be almost impossible to prevent their 

 oryx -hunting propensities, on account of the 

 shield which, I repeat, is part of the equipment 

 of the native gent and ol 7ro\\ol into the bar- 

 gain. When shooting in Somaliland or in the 

 wilds of East Africa it is indispensable to attach 

 a Midgan or Wandorrobo, respectively, to one's 

 personnel, as having gained their confidence and 

 therefore their friendship (a state of bliss usually 



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