MY SOMALI BOOK 167 



were no karias in the immediate neighbourhood, and 

 little game. 



So just after dark Elmi went out and tied up a goat 

 four or five feet from the usual loop-hole. Half a 

 minute after he had left it, and before he was back 

 inside the zariba, there was a rush and a scuffle, 

 followed by loud angry growling roars in front of the 

 loop-hole. I had just sat down to dinner, but ran out 

 at once, leaving the soup to get cold. The noise the 

 beast or beasts made was so loud, and such behaviour 

 so unlike a leopard, that I thought it must be a lion, 

 and Abdilleh at once assured me that he believed it 

 was so, and that there were two if not more. By the 

 time I had got down to the loop-hole the growling had 

 ceased ; it was a starlight night, no moon ; I could 

 make out that there was something on the kill, but 

 nothmg definite at first. I peered at the dim object 

 in front of me trying to distinguish its outlines, when 

 suddenly with an angry roar, it hurled itself at the 

 loop-hole, a round head with two blazing eyes appearing 

 in the aperture, the while an impatient paw seized the 

 muzzle of my gun, and dragged it violently to one side ! 

 My finger was on the trigger at the time, so the result 

 naturally was an explosion, the bullet probably passing 

 just over the audacious visitor's shoulder. Of course 

 he vanished. 



Abdilleh came up and rebuked me for shooting in 

 such a hurry. I said, " Please, I didn't ; he tried to 

 shoot himself ! " It then came out that when the goat 

 was first charged, Henduleh, who was on guard at the 

 loop-hole, mistook the enemy for a hysena, and gave 

 him a jab with a spear, hence the appalling language I 



