146 MY SOMALI BOOK 



About one o'clock news came in that a young 

 camel had been killed the evening before about five 

 miles away in the opposite direction, so presently we 

 were off again. On arrival at the spot, we found the 

 fore part of the camel remaining, concealed in the 

 long grass, while his pugs showed the lion to be a big 

 male. He had been seen near the kill as late as 7 a.m. 

 that morning, and as there was a considerable area of 

 high grass and thick bush all around, he was probably 

 somewhere not far off. But the cover was such as 

 to render tracking very slow and difficult, and the 

 chances of a shot if we found him small. So we 

 decided it would be wiser not to look for him so late in 

 the day, but to take advantage of the kill and sit up 

 for his return. Accordingly a thorn shelter was made 

 some thirty yards away and the kill dragged in front 

 of this from its hiding-place, a goat at the same time 

 being tied up outside the shelter, in which I took my 

 place at about 5 p.m. Such a procedure, especially 

 the moving of the kill, would, with the tiger, be simply 

 throwing one's chances away ; but I believe a similar 

 plan frequently proves successful with a lion, who has 

 the reputation of being far less cautious when returning 

 to a kill. And if any man knows the ways of lions it 

 should be Abdilleh. 



However, our vigil was doomed to disappointment, 

 though we stayed in the shelter until daybreak next 

 morning. What had happened was simply what, 

 judging from tiger experiences, was to be expected. 

 The lion came and found his kill gone ; prowling 

 round, he detected us in our shelter, did not think it 

 good enough, and decamped. Tying up a bait outside 



