TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 59 



High above us, sailing round and round majesti- 

 cally, were many vultures. Sometimes one would 

 swoop low, to rise again. It was plain from the 

 screaming of the birds a kill was at hand. Wc 

 pushed on, an indescribable excitement gripping 

 me. I regarded every bush furtively. What secrets 

 mightit not hold ? Abreast of it, passed it. Nothing ! 

 I had a taut feeling of strained relief ; I glanced 

 at Cecily, but you could not guess her feeling 

 from her face. I felt I should like to walk, to feel 

 terra firma beneath my feet, and grasp my rifle instead 

 of reins ; but Clarence had said nothing, and plodded 

 along by my side. He was walking, but four hunters 

 were mounted. 



In a slightly open space — the whole of the sandy 

 waste was dotted here with bushes taller than a man 

 — we came on what had once been a graceful aoul, 

 mangled and torn. The lions had dined, and that 

 heavily, only the shoulders of the gazelle being left. 

 The sand was tossed up and ploughed into furrows in 

 the death struggle, and from the scene of the last phase 

 wound a lion track going towards a thick bunch of 

 thorn. It seemed likely the lions were lying up in the 

 immediate vicinity. The lion feeds in a very business- 

 like manner, and after a kill gorges himself to reple- 

 tion, then, not to put too fine a point on it, goes a little 

 way off, is violently and disgustingly sick, after which 

 he returns and gorges some more. Then he sleeps, off 

 and on, for perhaps three days, when he hunts again. 

 When hunting, immense distances are covered, and 

 though he hunts alone, his mate comes up with him 



