MY SOMALI BOOK 15 



as Elmi had predicted, we fell in with a herd of a 

 dozen aoiil (Sommering's gazelle). They were shy 

 and for an hour did not give us a chance, but at length 

 we succeeded in waylaying them as they rounded the 

 corner of a hill only 120 yards away. I opened fire 

 and made, one after another, three misses at the leading 

 buck, which Elmi said was the best ; though to my 

 eye all the horns carried by male and female alike 

 seemed much of a muchness. It was onlv the third 

 shot that I was able to locate as obviously high. 



The aoul meanwhile were still quietly walking in 

 single file. We were down wind of them and sheltered 

 from view, and they did not seem to hear the crack of 

 the Mannlicher. A fourth shot aimed low was more 

 successful, and the buck dropped, but picked himself 

 up, hit too far back. After following a couple of 

 hundred yards I got in another shot, behind the 

 shoulder, and he bounded forward and fell dead. Not 

 a very good head though heavy, but it was a beginning. 



The aoul is a handsome beast, about the size of 

 the Indian blackbuck, but of stouter build, with a 

 conspicuous white patch on the rump. The strongly 

 annulated horns are of a very distinct type, the points 

 curving sharply inwards towards each other. The 

 female also has fairly long horns, but more slender and 

 smoother, and often irregular in shape. Unlike the 

 blackbuck, which it otherwise considerably resembles 

 in its habits, the aoul rarely, in my experience, indulges 

 in those wonderful high bounds so typical of the 

 Indian species, whose every hoof would seem to carry 

 a golf ball in its sole. 



Kabarah, my second shikari, hearing the shots, 



