PREFACE 



In a few years the days of adventurous exploration 

 in Africa will have passed, and the darkness that 

 enshrouded that continent at the end of last century 

 will have melted away. With the spread of civiliza- 

 tion, which ultimately, no doubt, brings peace and 

 prosperity, the interesting customs and habits of the 

 primitive tribes must change, giving place to new, 

 and so brief is this period of transition, that within a 

 short space almost all traces of the old are obliterated. 



Jubaland is an unexplored country. Its inhabi- 

 tants are living to-day in the same fashion that their 

 forefathers lived centuries ago. Its wild animals 

 roam undisturbed over its wide and silent plains, or 

 lie unmolested in the shadow of its bush. But this 

 state of affairs cannot last. In a few years all will 

 be different, and Jubaland will be unrecognizable. 



In the following pages I have attempted to 

 record my impressions of the lives and habits of its 

 people and its game, before the Somali and the 

 Borana become civilized and the wild animals are 

 driven out and finally exterminated. 



The explorer who enters for the first time an 

 unknown country about which there is nothing but 

 native information on which to depend, is at once 



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