120 MY SOMALI BOOK 



that there was some one a little too close to be com- 

 fortable. The result being that a few minutes later 

 a stampede of the animals at the far end of the zariba 

 told me that he was prowling around on the other side. 

 He did not come into my view at all, though twice, 

 during the hour I waited, the behaviour of the sheep 

 and goats inside showed that he was still about. 



At length I lay down again, and was just dozing 

 off when a shout and commotion inside the zariba made 

 me sib up and look round. I was just in time to see, 

 in the dim moonlight, a shadowy form race across the 

 unoccupied portion of the zariba behind me, and clear 

 the fence at a point some eight or ten j^ards from where 

 I lay beside my loaded gun. It was the leopard, of 

 course, and he had taken a sheep with him I It looked 

 as if he had, instead of jumping out where he came 

 in, purposely crossed the zariba to my side to show his 

 contempt for me, and I could almost believe I heard 

 a mocking laugh as he vanished into the darkness ! 

 The whole proceeding involved a nice calculation of 

 risks worthy of all praise, demonstrating once more 

 how the bolder is so often the safer course ; and once 

 again I had been scored off by a Somali leopard. 



What had struck me as much as an3^thing in these 

 proceedings was the pace at which the leopard crossed 

 the zariba in spite of his burden. Inspection of the 

 ground at daylight showed that he adopted the 

 method I have already described, holding the fore 

 part of the sheep in his mouth up in the air while the 

 hindquarters trailed on the ground on his right side. 



Outside we followed the trail for about half a mile 

 to a stony hill where the head of the sheep and a 



