162 MY SOMALI BOOK 



investigating things, but showed no inclination to 

 wander away. He took a great interest in the camels, 

 though rather nervous of such big creatures. 



He was altogether a most charming and gentle- 

 manly little beast ; the lynx baby, too, was as tame 

 as possible — until feeding time, when it became an 

 absolute little fury. Sonny had been promoted to 

 scraps of meat too, over which he was apt to get im- 

 patient, but on the whole his table manners were good. 

 But I have never seen anything like such concentrated 

 rage in a tiny creature as in the other little spitfire if 

 it thought you were going to interfere with its dinner. 



On the night of the 15th we heard a leopard several 

 times, but he did not come near the zariba. Next 

 morning I went to search for lesser kudu. Just after 

 starting I nearly trod on a partridge with three chicks 

 a few days old, wee mottled brown balls of fluff ; I 

 tried to catch one for closer inspection, but they 

 reached some cover and vanished immediately. 



We went on to the river-bed, which looked pro- 

 mising for kudu. There were no signs of any for a 

 long time, but at length we struck the fresh tracks of 

 a solitary bull ; following these for some distance we 

 had just lost them in thick jungle when our attention 

 was attracted by a distant coo-ee from the direction of 

 camp. Elmi went to investigate, and presently came 

 back with one of the camel-men to say that fresh 

 hhahar of lions had just come in. The elusive kudu 

 was promptly left to his own devices as we hurried 

 back to camp. 



It turned out that one of the men who had been to 

 Hargeisa with a letter, had just arrived and reported 



