TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 137 



It would have been inhospitable to offer any of the 

 curry, so we begged them to sample the tinned beef. 

 Our butler waited on us, and drenched the four of us 

 in a successful attempt to open a champagne bottle. 

 Oh yes, we gave them champagne, to make up for 

 other deficiencies. I told them if they would wait for 

 dinner they should have a Carlton-hke meal. After 

 lunch they would see our skins and heads, so we 

 excavated the skulls, and displayed all we had for 

 admiration. We tried not to feel superior, but it was 

 rather difficult when we heard they had not as yet got 

 a shot even at a rhino. I lay low about the price we 

 paid for ours ! We evidently went up a little in their 

 estimation, because they invited us to take part in a 

 big shoot next day, and seemed really anxious we 

 should accept. We said we were about to trek in an 

 opposite direction, but I was rather taken aback when 

 the elder warrior asked me how I knew which direction 

 the proposed shoot was to take ? They invited us to 

 go over and see their trophies, but we did not mean to 

 give them one single chance to crow, and instantly on 

 their departure struck camp and moved on towards a 

 large Somali encampment which had recently suffered 

 many grievous losses from the depredations of 

 leopards. 



We were anxious to see the spoor for ourselves. A 

 great many of the leopards reported are nothing in the 

 wide world but hyaena in spite of the fact that the 

 leopard, being a cat, does not, in quiescence, show 

 his claws in the pug marks, and the hyaena, being a 

 dog, does ; besides, the shape of the pad is entirely 



