TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 121 



highest type of jungle matron, frequently abandoning 

 a little one to fend for itself weeks before it has been 

 taught the ways of the jungle. And so it is that 

 gereniik fawns are a great mainstay in the lion dietary. 



We let our youthful friend investigate us to his lik- 

 ing, after which he trotted off. Gereniik seldom or 

 never gallop, and get up nothing like the speed of an 

 oryx for instance. 



We paused for lunch, and some surprised Midgans 

 were located beneath a guda tree. Round about them 

 were many fierce and vengeful-looking dogs. They 

 had a fire over which they were roasting bits of 

 flesh. A few dogs fought and wrangled over mangled 

 remnants of bone, skin, and entrails. The horns and 

 shield of an oryx hung on a khansa bush. The horns 

 were not large, and were those of a cow oryx, killed to 

 make a Midgan holiday, by the aid of the trained dogs, 

 arid with a coup- de-gr dee of arrows. I have never seen 

 the actual hunting, but I understand that these pariah 

 dogs are bred by the Midgans to hunt the oryx, and 

 going out in a pack make straight for the prey on being 

 shown the antelope. 



The music of the chase is noteless. The dogs hunt 

 in silence, until they bring the antelope to his last stand, 

 when they give tongue, guiding the tracking Midgans, 

 who steal up, asiconcealed as may be, and let fly a flight 

 of arrows which either settles the oryx there and then, 

 or paves the way for an easy pull down later. Very 

 often the antelope makes such a glorious stand that a 

 couple of dogs are left on the field of battle for the 

 hyaenas. Though the dogs fasten on to their prey and 



