MY SOMALI BOOK 51 



mind. Sahib." I did mind. For it was so flaorant. 



"O" 



I was a fairly good shot once and had been flattering 

 myself that I had recovered my form. And what 

 made it worse was that I did not know why I had 

 missed, for I had not misjudged the distance and my 

 hand had seemed steady enough. 



However, there was a measure of consolation in 

 store. After following without success an oryx which 

 twice stood behind a bush out of sight and snorted 

 after the fashion of its kind as it dashed off, we were 

 on our way back to camp when suddenly another bull 

 oryx started up from under the shade of a tree and 

 stood watching us only eighty or ninety yards away, 

 thinking himself hidden, as he nearly was, by a clump 

 of grass. I aimed where I judged his shoulder to be 

 and heard the bullet tell on his tough hide as he spun 

 round in a cloud of dust and disappeared. He 

 stopped after going 150 yards or so, and I knew he 

 must be very sick ; I hit him again and he plunged 

 away ; a third shot high up as he galloped brought 

 him to his knees, but he was up again at once, and it 

 was only to a fourth bullet in the neck that he finally 

 succumbed. A game beast and as tough as any 

 animal I have hunted. It was satisfactory to have 

 got an oryx at last ; this one had an average head with 

 29-inch horns : Oryx beisa does not grow such long 

 horns as its southern relative, the gemsbok. I noted 

 with interest the thickness of the hide of the neck and 

 withers, which is in great demand among the Somalis 

 for the making of shields. 



Marching back to the edge of the Haud we crossed 

 the tracks, a day old, of a big lion, but could not stop 



