MY SOMALI BOOK 129 



imagined from my delay in shooting that I could not 

 distinguish the leopard, and would not understand me 

 when I tried to stop his pointing and gesticulating ; 

 with the result that he attracted the notice of the 

 leopard, which pricked up its ears and growled and then 

 slipped away. 



After explaining to Henduleh what sort of a shikari 

 I thought him, I sat down to wait. After about an 

 hour the leopard rose from behind a bush to the left, 

 where he had evidently been lying on the watch for 

 some time, and walked across my front about ten yards 

 away. As he appeared to be departing and I could 

 just see his outline I thought I had better shoot. 

 Unfortunately I had no time to try and aim properly 

 before he should disappear round the corner, and in 

 my anxiety not to make the usual mistake of firing 

 too high I did the other thing, and, as we found in 

 the morning, my bullet must have passed just under- 

 neath him. It would have been rather a fluke if I 

 had hit him, but I was disgusted at having had my 

 excellent opportunity when he was on the kill spoiled 

 by Henduleh' s stupidity or excess of zeal. 



We took up the leopard's tracks in the morning 

 and succeeded in following him for about three miles, 

 but then had to give up. Overhead, sailing in great 

 curves on all but motionless pinions was the handsome 

 bateleur eagle, his crimson leggings conspicuous in 

 spite of his height above me ; and I wished that 

 Mowgli had been there to teach me the eagle's Master- 

 word ; for the passing-by of the spotted prowler could 

 never have escaped that piercing eye. 



That afternoon I met three buck gerenuh in the 



