Somali 



skin, while the fox laid down a short way off and 

 watched, returning to his well-earned meal the 

 very instant I rode away again. 



That night a Somali galloped into the camp 

 with the joyful news that three lions had visited 

 a village three hours' march away. Accordingly, 

 next morning we moved on to the village. By 

 "village," be it understood, I mean nomadic 

 encampment. We had only seen occasional 

 wandering Somalis before, so were interested to 

 see something of the people. We found a confused 

 crowd of Somalis, camels, and sheep, all clustering 

 round a water-hole which was reduced to a filthy 

 little mud puddle, at which the whole lot, men and 

 beasts, seemed to take it in turns to swallow the 

 pea-soup mixture all day. It was impossible to 

 get our water there, and as our barrels were low 

 and we were all on very restricted rations of drink 

 (washing was "off"), we sent five camels to a 

 pool forty miles away, where heavy rain had been 

 reported, and five more to another pool ten miles 

 distant. The Somalis had a few rough huts 

 up, constructed with a few poles covered with 

 camel-mats. They were very friendly, but a 

 nuisance, as they crowded round our tents all day ; 

 and as they are light-fingered gentry, we had to 

 put sentries on and keep our zeriba clear. The 

 lion reports were rather misty, and as there was 

 no other game so close to an encampment, we 



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