xii AN ADVENTURE WITH LIONS 145 



Somali name for a structure made beside a kill, 

 from which a sportsman may, with some degree 

 of safety, shoot a lion when he returns after dark to 

 have another meal. 



We accordingly all set out for the spot, taking 

 with us the Headman, Munyakai bin Diwani, a 

 Somali gun-bearer, and a couple of dozen porters 

 carrying axes and slashers to cut branches and drive 

 in stakes. When we arrived at the spot where the 

 half-eaten eland lay, we found ample evidence of a 

 mighty death struggle, as the ground was torn up 

 all round, while shrubs and branches lay broken in 

 every direction. 



We at once proceeded to build the shoma within 

 four yards of the dead eland. It was constructed 

 in the following manner. First, stakes were cut 

 and driven firmly into the ground in a circle having 

 a diameter of about eight feet. As a matter of 

 fact, we had no time to complete the enclosure, for 

 when little more than half of these uprights w r ere 

 in position dusk came on, and the remainder of 

 the shoma was merely closed by bushes hastily 

 cut and placed round to fill in the gap. The upright 

 stakes were interlaced with thin wattles which 

 bound them firmly together and made them more or 

 less rigid, while all over the outward face we fixed 

 small branches and leaves, which we plucked from 

 the surrounding trees and bushes, so as to make the 



