CHAPTER II 



Start from Berbera — Fii'st meeting with aoul : description — Deragodleh and 

 Lafarug — ^INIandera : lesser kudu : dik-dik — Birds : the millionaire myna : 

 king-crow — The Somali leopard : sitting up for him : bad luck — Black- 

 backed jackal — Greater kudu : a fine trophy — -A leopard's " kill " : 

 no luck again — Carrion birds : crow and mongoose. 



It was 3 p.m. on the 15th January when Elmi and I 

 set out across the Maritime Plain in pursuit of our 

 caravan. Interesting at first our way was not : a 

 flat sandy soil, dotted with low scrubby thorn bushes 

 and apparently devoid of animal life, except for a little 

 ground squirrel and a sand-lizard with a very sharp- 

 pointed tail, which he carries high in the air as he 

 scuttles away. But our faces were to the wonderful 

 south, and the Golis Mountains, rising into the distant 

 sky, beckoned with a promise of everything of which 

 my last two years at an office-desk had seemed to deny 

 the existence. 



We were about six miles on our road when I had 

 my first glimpse of a dik-dik, and soon after Elmi 

 spotted a little herd of lowland dhero (Pelzeln's gazelle), 

 and very like they seemed to the familiar Indian 

 chinJcara. As the range of this species hardly extends 

 beyond the Maritime Plain, I thought I would try for 

 a shot just to see what it felt like to stalk a buck once 

 more. But, as I told Elmi, he was not to expect 

 much at first, as I had not touched a rifle for three 



