138 TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 



different. The hyaena has a triangle-shaped back pad, 

 with two large side toes and two smaller centre ones, 

 whilst the pug of the leopard is similar to that of lion 

 but proportionately smaller. In spite of these mistakes 

 on the part of some unlettered Somali, almost every 

 black man spoors in a way no white man ever can hope 

 to do. The former can follow tracks of game over 

 ground that tells us nothing. Stony ground, wet 

 ground, loose ground, dry ground, all alike give up 

 secrets to him whereof we cannot hear the faintest 

 whispers. The whole jungle is an open book to the 

 black shikari, and compared to him the cleverest chiel 

 among us is but a tyro. 



We camped some two miles from the karia, and 

 barely arrived when the head-man arrived to say 

 " Salaam." He brought with him all his sisters and 

 his cousins and his aunts. A very plain lot they 

 looked too, although Clarence whispered to me that in 

 Somaliland one of the women was rated as a great 

 beauty. I don't know how he knew, unless the local 

 M. A. P. said so. After a closer inspection of the 

 lady I came to the conclusion that, for a beauty, she 

 really was not bad looking. 



They were very prying though, and really dangerous 

 to have round, as one could not be everywhere at once. 

 They all had advanced kleptomania. My tent was 

 overflowing with them, though I had given orders to 

 keep the place clear, and somebody annexed my 

 sponge, hair-brush, and even a tooth-brush vanished 

 from Cecily's tent, though we never saw any one pene- 

 trate it. I don't know what use the tooth-brush would 



