8 TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 



transcendent vulgarity of it all made one ashamed of 

 being there. 



The next item on the programme was a Human 

 Snake, who promised us faithfully that he would dis- 

 locate his neck. He marched on to a gaudy dais, and 

 after tying himself in sundry knots and things, sud- 

 denly jerked, and his neck elongated, swinging loosely 

 from his body. It was a very horrid sight. An atten- 

 dant stepped forward and told us the Human Snake 

 had kept his promise. The neck was dislocated. My 

 only feeling in the matter was a regret he had not gone 

 a step farther and broken it. All this was because I 

 have no sense of humour. I don't like music-hall 

 entertainments. I would put up with being smoked 

 into a kipper if the performance rewarded one at all. 

 It is so automatic, so sad. There is no joy, or fresh- 

 ness, or life about it. Tis a squalid way of earning 

 money. 



At last every arrangement was arranged, our clothes 

 for the trip duly packed. Being women, we had 

 naturally given much thought to this part of the affair. 

 We said " Adieu " to our wondering and amazed rela- 

 tives, who, with many injunctions to us to " write 

 every day," and requests that we should at all times 

 abjure damp beds, saw us off en route for Berbera, via 

 Aden, by a P. and O. liner. 



I think steamer-travelling is most enjoyable — that 

 is, unless one happens to be married, in which case 

 there is no pleasure in it, or in much else for the matter 

 of that. I have always noticed that the selfishness 

 which dominates every man more or less, usually more, 



