MY SOMALI BOOK 127 



brute of a jackal had the audacity to attack my goat. 

 I lay in wait to punish him with a dose of No. 2 shot. 

 Presently I heard a crunching of bones a little to my 

 left outside the zariba, which I put down to the jack 

 or a hyaena having picked up some scraps, and hoped 

 he would come in sight when he had done. It was 

 only next morning that I knew what the " scraps " 

 were, and found that Master Jack had contrived to 

 squeeze through the fence opposite Abdi's cooking 

 place, with the result, as the latter now informed me, 

 that unless master shot some fresh meat for dinner he 

 would have to go without ! However, that evening, 

 the little Sherwood exacted a full revenge. 



That morning just as we were skinning a good 

 dibatag shot in time to replace my stolen dinner, a 

 messenger turned up to say that Elmi, who had been 

 out prospecting in another direction, had seen three 

 leopards together. Now the leopard, though some- 

 times found in pairs, is not ordinarily given to com- 

 pany, so I remarked to Abdilleh, on hearing the news, 

 that they were probably cliitas, especially as the latter 

 frequently hunt by day. 



It took us an hour and a half to come up with 

 Elmi, who pointed out where he had last seen the beasts 

 go into some long grass. We inspected the tracks — 

 chitas sure enough. But they had not stayed in that 

 patch of grass, and though we searched for an hour 

 we could not find them. The spaces between the 

 grass patches were so wind-swept that all tracks in 

 the surface layer of the sand were obliterated as soon 

 as made. It was a disappointment. 



Soon after I missed, badly, the finest dibatag 1 had 



