MY SOMALI BOOK 21 



comes to slioot a leopard from his zariba ; but he will 

 show no gratitude, and will demand an exorbitant 

 price for a goat to be used as bait. 



The modus operandi consists in making a loophole 

 in the zariba fence about two feet from the ground, 

 tying a goat up immediately outside and waiting for 

 the panther to come. It is not a sporting method, but 

 being the only one usually possible, it has to my 

 thinking a sufficient excuse in the amount of damage 

 to stock caused by the depredations of leopards. And, 

 as will be seen, it is not nearly so simple a business as 

 it sounds ; which fact, with the darkness and the nature 

 of the beast with which one has to deal, combine to 

 provide an element of excitement that makes the 

 affair not quite the cold-blooded butchery that it might 

 at first appear. While if the leopard is only wounded, 

 one may have some nervous work in following him up 

 next morning. As to the use of a live goat as bait, 

 I confess I have no scruples. The goat objects at first 

 to being tied up outside the zariba, but it certainly 

 does not, as I once heard stated by a man with no 

 personal knowledge of the subject, spend the time in a 

 state of terror. While if the leopard is killed, the 

 sacrifice of one goat means the saving alive of many. 



On this occasion at Mandera my luck was out. 

 I was sitting at a loop-hole in a neighbouring zariba 

 at about 9 p.m., when suddenly the goat stiffened and 

 tugged at its rope with the peculiar sneezing snort 

 the goat tribe go in for when alarmed. I knew what 

 that meant, had heard just one faint foot-fall. Next 

 moment there was a rush, a gurgling scuffle, and the 

 goat was gone ! The leopard's charge — he must have 



