112 MY SOMALI BOOK 



arrived in camp wet through, to find a mail had 

 arrived by runner from Hargeisa, which was very 

 welcome. 



Less welcome was the news that my milch camels 

 had gone, strayed away : sad both for me and for the 

 mullah, but he had only himself to blame. The marvel 

 to me is wh^r the Somalis do not lose more camels, 

 turning them out as they do, to graze at their own 

 sweet will. Fortunately I was able to hire another 

 couple. 



Leaving some of the camels and kit at Kotunwein, 

 I took the rest and spent three or four days working 

 on a radius of ten or twelve miles from my base, but 

 of lions we could find no fresh sign. 



At one place we found a gereniih fawn about four 

 days old, in the hands of a Somali. I ransomed the 

 little creature which was a dear wee thing, more 

 dainty and elegant than the baby aoul ; but it did 

 not take kindly to goat's milk and only lived two days. 

 The Somalis said the only chance of rearing a gerenuk 

 was to take it immediately it was born ; once it had 

 tasted its mother's milk it would touch no other. This 

 may or may not be true, but it was certainly a more 

 nervous and sensitive little being than the aoul fawn, 

 which, by the way, was thriving. 



One evening I was out with the Sherwood only, close 

 to camp, trying to shoot something for the pot, and had 

 got a dik-dik and a small bustard, when I came across 

 the finest gerenuk buck I have seen. He was accom- 

 panied by his ladies yet I was able to get up to within 

 fifty yards in the fading light, although they undoubted^ 

 saw me. It was like the contrariness of things that I 



