TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 31 



Rice for the men's rations we bought in sacks of 

 some 160 pounds, and two bags could be carried by- 

 one camel. Dates, also an indispensable article of 

 diet, are put up in native baskets of sorts, and bought 

 by the gosra, about 130 pounds, and two gosra can 

 be apportioned to a camel. Ghee, the native butter, is 

 a compound of cow's milk, largely used by the Somalis 

 to mix with the rice portion, a large quantity of fat 

 being needful ere the wheels go round smoothly. It 

 is bought in a bag made of a whole goat skin, with an 

 ingenious cork of wood and clay. Each bag, if my 

 memory serves me rightly, holds somewhere about 

 20 pounds, and every man expects two ounces daily 

 unless he is on a meat diet, when it is possible to 

 economise the rice and dates and ghee. 



The camel mats, or herios, are plaited by the women 

 of Somaliland, and are made from the chewed bark of 

 a tree called Galol. The hams for water are also made 

 from plaited bark, in different sizes, and when near a 

 karia, it is quite usual to see old women and small 

 children carrying on their backs the heaviest filled 

 hams, whilst the men sit about and watch operations. 

 The hams, which hold about six gallons of water, 

 are — from the camels' point of view anyway — the 

 best for transport purposes. Six can be carried at once, 

 but a tremendous amount of leakage goes on, and this 

 is very irritating, upsetting calculations so. The water- 

 casks were really better, because they were padlocked, 

 and could also be cleaned out at intervals. But of 

 these only two can go on a camel at one time. 



Our own kit was mostly in tin uniform cases, these 



