MY SOMALI BOOK 187 



pecuniary bonus I distributed a few sheep and goats 

 that had returned aUve, with sundry articles of 

 clothing, saddlery, knives, etc. 



And certainly they deserved well of me. A good 

 tracker, intelligent, plucky, and enduring, among 

 shikaris the Somali takes a high place ; provided, of 

 course, you get the genuine article, for there are plenty 

 of worthless scamps ready to masquerade as shikaris. 

 Perhaps his weakest point is his excitability at critical 

 moments, while until he is taught better a young 

 Somali sometimes will not realise that when it comes 

 to the actual shooting his advice is not wanted, and 

 that he must not hustle or distract the attention of 

 the man behind the gun. 



Both Elmi Hirsi and Abdilleh Ashur were quite 

 in the front rank, but the latter was considerably older 

 and therefore less active ; towards the end of this trip 

 he was decidedly seedy, so that he rarely came out 

 with me, confining his attention to running the caravan ; 

 that did not matter when there were no lions about. 

 But his intuition was wonderfully quick, and his 

 experience was much greater than Elmi's, such, in 

 fact, as almost to place him in a class by himself. He 

 had, indeed, the reputation of being, for lion, the best 

 man in the country. 



He was, by the way, the man who, in all probability, 

 saved Lord Delamere's life, when that well-known 

 sportsman was shooting in Somaliland a good many 

 years ago. The latter failed to stop the charge of a 

 lion which he had wounded, and the beast knocked 

 him down and proceeded to chew his foot. Abdilleh 

 emptied his rifle into the lion, which took no notice. 



