MY SOMALI BOOK 45 



followed him until nearly dark and then had to give 

 up. It was bad luck that what was probably a 

 different lion's roar in the night had taken me out in 

 the morning and made me so late in getting on his trail : 

 if we could have come up with him before he had had 

 his sleep out and while the sun was high we should 

 probably have had him. However, it was something 

 to have had even that glimpse of the King of Beasts 

 in his native wilds and I still hoped for a closer 

 acquaintance. 



The next two days were blank except for the 

 shooting of a doe gerenuk by mistake one evening? 

 when I could not distinguish the buck's head in the 

 dusk and was in want of meat. That did not interest 

 the Somalis who, as a rule, will not eat the flesh of the 

 gerenuk. It is difficult to understand why ; but so 

 far as I can make out, the gerenuk, with long neck 

 browsing on the thorn-trees and a somewhat camel- 

 like profile, has for them associations with the camel 

 on which their dependence is so great ; hence a vague 

 idea that to eat its flesh might bring ill-luck upon their 

 camel herds. Not that they have any objection to 

 eating the camel itself when they can afford it ; very 

 much the contrary, I have however heard of a different 

 and rather fantastic reason in an alleged resemblance 

 of certam physical functions in the gerenuk to the 

 human kind. 



A runner turned up from Berbera with welcome 

 mails, and letters and writing up my journal helped 

 to pass the long hours of the morning in camp waiting 

 for khabar that did not come. 



In the evenings, the air was full of the call of a 



