Sporting Trips of a Subaltern 



days' quarantine, owing to the plague which was 

 raging in Bombay. The Ganges was, fortu- 

 nately for us, returning to India, so while the 

 other passengers transferred themselves to the 

 Arcadia for home, we did our quarantine very 

 comfortably on the ship. Except for the catching 

 of a 6-feet shark, nothing of any interest occurred, 

 and on the 20th we were released and went on 

 shore. 



Aden is not a popular resort of tourists, and 

 the hotel accommodation is, or was then, very 

 indifferent. Our rooms were full of Mark Twain's 

 " chamois " and game of larger dimensions, while 

 the heat was intolerable. We called on the 

 General Commanding and on the Political 

 Kesident, and were warned by both to keep out 

 of the way of the Abyssinians, who were then 

 raiding Somali territory; and, worse still, we 

 were made to promise not to cross the eighth 

 line of latitude, which cut us off from much 

 good elephant and rhino ground. 



I had taken the precaution of writing on 

 beforehand from India to engage a headman, who, 

 in turn, was to engage "boys," i.e. personal 

 attendants and hunters, and to start buying 

 camels. Three Somalis turned up at Aden, and 

 said they were respectively two " boys " and a 

 hunter. The headman was at Berbera, across the 

 gulf, buying camels. 



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