42 Three Months' Leave in Somali Land. 



Ashar, four, his brother two, total ten ; all shot 

 at night, and this is more open country than I 

 have been in yet. Derio, about halfway between 

 Lehelu and Fanat. 



20th, Tuesday. — At about 12 last night two 

 lions charged across the nullah towards the 

 donkey, gave a snort and vanished. They were 

 to windward, the donkey was eight yards from 

 me, and the place where I was sitting was among 

 some driftwood in the roots of a tree ; I had 

 hardly added a stick to it, and you could not see 

 it was artificial in daylight. Neither I nor Jama 

 moved ; I lay still watching the donkey, he faced 

 the lions, snorted and stamped as they came up, 

 and cocked his tail when they ran away ; he fully 

 believes he frightened them, but I think Paget 

 must have taught them the donkey trick too 

 thoroughly last year. They are the same two 

 that came at Fanat. Tracked them into some 

 thick jungle where the ground was too hard for 

 tracking, hunted about in it, but it is a very large 

 bit, and I found nothing. Saw tracks of an 

 ostrich. The big lion did not turn up ; he 

 appears to have left the day I arrived, as usual. 

 Went to see if there was anything near the dead 



