188 MY SOMALI BOOK 



He then tackled the enemy with his bare hands, trying 

 to force its jaw open, until it turned on him and bit 

 him badly on arm and leg. However, the lion, which 

 was very severely wounded, was weakening, and he 

 managed to get away from it, he and his master both 

 crawling away a short distance to sit down faint and 

 bleeding, the lion lying in the same condition not far 

 off. I don't vouch for the details of the story, but I 

 believe, in substance, the account I have given is 

 correct. 



Abdilleh told me that as a youngster he was present 

 on another occasion when a Sahib was killed by an 

 elephant, which knocked him down and ran its tusk 

 into him. I fancy this must have been Count Ruspoli. 



In Berbera they seemed to think I had had remark- 

 able luck, and I should be the last to deny it, especially 

 in respect of that first troop of Hons. But I had my 

 share of bad luck too, beginning with the loss of 

 three weeks, and the going astray of my Abyssinian 

 permit, with such items in the field as losing that 

 grand lesser kudu through a Somali having meddled 

 with my backsight. 



One hears far too much of luck, good and bad, in 

 big-game shooting. A tiger is shot and some one at 

 once remarks, " That lucky beggar X. has got another 

 tiger ! "• As a matter of fact, X.'s " luck " is due, 

 four times out of five, to his having laid himself out to 

 shoot that tiger, and having gone the right way about it, 

 to say nothing of straight powder when the time came. 



On the other hand, one meets men who have 

 returned from a shooting trip, and who do nothing but 

 prate of their bad luck, while as often as not their 



