MY SOMALI BOOK 141 



unfortunately I hesitated to shoot with the Paradox, 

 wliich I was carr3dng, at so small a mark at that 

 distance, and turned to Henduleh for the '318. As I 

 raised the latter to my shoulder, the spiral horns 

 whisked round into view and he was gone. The miss 

 my hasty shot achieved was a foregone conclusion. 

 My own fault : I should have learnt the lesson on my 

 first trip that the only thing to do with a lesser kudu, 

 unless perhaps 3^ou see him first and know you are 

 undetected, is to shoot on sight at the first approach 

 to a reasonable chance he gives you. 



That afternoon the cook's boy turned up to be 

 doctored, with a hole in his head. They said a branch 

 had fallen on him as he lay asleep. The hole was above 

 the right eye, nearly half an inch deep. I syringed and 

 washed it with an antiseptic solution and dressed it 

 according to my lights, and eventually made a satis- 

 factory cure. 



When we arrived at Aror we heard of various recent 

 depredations by lions, but our fame seemed to have 

 preceded us, as for two or three days we heard of none. 

 Then fortune gave another shake of the dice and there 

 were happenings. 



First came in news on the morning of the 5th 

 September of a sheep taken during the night from a 

 karia four miles aw^ay. We made our way there and 

 took up the track — a single lioness. After about two 

 hours following her trail with considerable difficulty 

 we struck a likely patch of high grass beyond which 

 the tracks did not seem to go. The grass and bush 

 were rather too continuous to make it a nice spot ; 

 however, I took my stand in a position that seemed 



