MY SOMALI BOOK 147 



an ordinary zariba is another matter ; the lion knows 

 the zariba to be a human habitation and visits it in 

 that knowledge. But the human presence in a newly 

 constructed shelter where was no such thing before, with 

 a live bait just alongside of the spot whence his own 

 kill had been removed, savours too strongly of a trap 

 to a beast of a wary disposition, as this undoubted^ 

 was, and moreover not particularly hungry. But I 

 have no doubt that with many lions we should have 

 been successful. 



Daylight showed that he had been within a few 

 feet of us, but we never heard a sound, except between 

 9 and 10 p.m., when he roared three or four times a 

 defiant farewell as he was moving away. Lions in 

 Northern Somaliland are comparatively silent beasts ; 

 this was the only occasion that I heard a genuine roar. 

 It has become the fashion in some quarters to belittle 

 the lion, and his roar among other attributes is stated 

 to be nothing of account. I am not going to describe 

 it, that has been done often enough by men who know 

 and whom no one can accuse of exaggeration. For 

 me, having heard it, the long fruitless night vigil after 

 a tiring day yet seemed to have been worth while. 



On our way back to camp in the morning I again 

 came across the lesser kudu bull who had escaped me 

 before, and again was the result the same ; though on 

 this occasion, while we were able to track him for two 

 hours, he never gave me a chance of a shot at all. 



That afternoon we moved camp about five miles 

 westward. On the Avay we visited the spot where the 

 last lioness had died and found tracks of two cubs. 

 Firing the grass, one cub apparently contrived to sneak 



