56 MY SOMALI BOOK 



They say a bad workman blames his tools, but there 

 is no gainsaying the fact that tools occasionally do go 

 wrong ! And the worst workman is he who fails to 

 recognise the fact when it occurs. It was significant 

 that two or three misfires I had had, all happened at 

 times when the bullets were not going straight ; which 

 looked as if an individual clip of cartridges here and 

 there had gone wrong, and this is what one might 

 expect if the ammunition had been for too long exposed 

 to a hot climate. Subsequently I found out that 

 these cartridges, which I had obtained from a firm 

 in Calcutta, so far from being fresh, had been in that 

 place for two hot seasons. This being so, it was almost 

 a foregone conclusion that some of the cartridges, 

 loaded with a smokeless explosive, should have been 

 adversely affected by the heat. Q. E. D. Moral, always 

 get your ammunition out fresh from Home if possible. 



To go back to our second aoid. He was dead 

 enough this time and proved to have an exceptionally 

 tine head, horns symmetrical and measuring 19| 

 inches. The other was also a very good head, just 

 under 18. It is worthy of note that the horns of 

 aoul here and south of the Golis generally, while 

 decidedly longer, are in my experience more slender 

 and lighter than those found in Guban. What became 

 of the buck first wounded I do not know, but suppose 

 he nmst have slipped out of the herd on the far side 

 and lain down unobserved when I started riding. I 

 searched the plain with the glasses but could find no 

 trace of him. 



Meanwhile Brian and the mule were continuing 

 their evening stroll, and we had to tramp another 



