98 MY SOMALI BOOK 



depends perforce upon your intentions with regard to 

 the head. 



With some SomaHs it is pubhc opinion really that 

 counts ; an oryx dropped at 200 yards with a bullet 

 in the vertebrae of the neck is as dead as any mutton 

 long before your shikari can reach him, though he has 

 sprinted all the way ; but if you have not thought it 

 necessary to sprint too and there are none of his 

 brethren near, out comes the knife from his belt and 

 with a muttered Bismillah he saws frantically through 

 the tough hide. But many are really honest in this 

 observance, unless perhaps when hunger is too com- 

 pelling. 



We were in a fairly good game district now, and 

 what I wanted was to find a good place for a halt of 

 some days while I worked the neighbourhood daily. 

 So we sent off two or three men to find out and report 

 on water supply, etc., in certain places of which 

 Abdilleh knew. I also sent off a runner to Hargeisa 

 with letters and to bring my mails, which I had 

 arranged should be sent to J.'s care from Berbera. 



That night a goat tied up outside for a possible 

 leopard, was rushed and killed by a ivaraba in an 

 unusually determined manner. Then there was pande- 

 monium. Two or three hyaenas wanted their share, 

 while I sat watching to take vengeance on any of the 

 foul brood. But whenever one approached the kill, 

 another would chase him away, to an accompaniment 

 of weird screams and that demoniacal but horribly 

 human laughter which, under such conditions, one 

 could not fail to " appreciate." 



This went on for about twenty minutes and then 



