ABDI AND ABDULLAH 355 



asked the new-comer to hold the lion while he killed 

 it with his spear. The other Somali consented and 

 seized the lion by the ears. Then the first Somali 

 laughed long and loud and said, 'I've held him 

 three days, now you hold him three days.' Then he 

 strolled down the road and disappeared. For seven 

 days the second Somali held the lion and then by 

 the same subterfuge turned it over to a third 

 Somali. By this time the lion was pretty tired, so 

 after one day the Somali shook the lion hard and 

 then took out his knife and stabbed it to death." 



Sulimani was my second gunbearer. His name 

 wasn't Sulimani, but some one gave him that name 

 because his own Kikuyu name was too hard to pro- 

 nounce and impossible to remember. Sulimani was 

 quite a study. He had the savage's love of snuff, 

 and when not eating or sleeping he was taking 

 pinches of that narcotic from an old kodak tin. In 

 consequence he had the chronic appearance of being 

 full of dope. He walked along as though in a 

 trance. He never seemed to be looking anywhere 

 except at the stretch of trail directly in front of 

 him. His thoughts were far away, or else there 

 were no thoughts at all. I often watched him and 

 wondered what he was thinking about. 



Sulimani was really one of the best natural hunt- 

 ers in the whole safari. He had a native instinct 

 for tracking that was wonderful; he had courage 

 that was fatalistic, and he seemed to know what an 

 animal would do and where it would go under 



