MY SOMALI BOOK 57 



two or three miles, each carrying an aoiil head and 

 Ehni a haunch of meat in addition, before the}^ were 

 captured. The caravan had long since vanished out 

 of sight in the open bush that bordered the northern 

 edge of the Plain. 



Fortunately we were on a regular caravan track, 

 but it was 8 o'clock before we arrived in camp and 

 that was not as far on as we had originally intended. 

 The Plain of Tuyo left behind, we were on the march 

 in the Khansa bush next day, when soon after day- 

 break we crossed the trail of a leopard's " kill." We 

 followed it for a couple of miles to a bush where the 

 " kill " (a kid) had been devoured and practically 

 nothing left ; there were two leopards, apparently a 

 mother and a nearly full-grown cub. We tracked them 

 on again for an hour or so, the soil being unusually 

 favourable, and marked them down at length in a 

 thicket of thorn bushes. Then I sent on a messenger 

 to the caravan to order a halt for the day, having 

 decided to sit up and try and draw the leopards with 

 a goat in the afternoon. To that end I gave them 

 from Still 5 p.m. with no result, which was disappoint- 

 ing, for I had the kodak carefully fixed up in the tree 

 beside me in the hope of an opportunity for a " snap " 

 before bringing the rifle into use ! 



Then with the nine men that were all I could raise 

 we started a beat. It was pretty certain that the line 

 a leopard would take on breaking cover would be 

 towards another big thicket a quarter of a mile away, 

 towards which they could go under cover all the way 

 except for an open patch not fifteen 3^ards across. 

 So I took up my position behind a bush commanding 



