TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 157 



On another early morning here, having only a 

 collector's gun with me, I put a charge into an old 

 wart-hog, but failed to do more than prick him into a 

 great annoyance and send him off into the wilderness 

 without getting him. I was vexed with myself for 

 hurting him. 



Just here, too, we came on a kill which had been a 

 jungle tragedy indeed : the spoor of two oryx all about 

 the outskirts of a green oasis, where succulent bushes 

 flourished, and confused pugs of a large lion. The 

 pugs had no beginning, only an ending, and a return 

 path. Therefore the devastator leaped from out his 

 lair and struck down his prey all suddenly. We 

 measured the spring from where it is certain the great 

 cat must have taken off to the spot where lay the half- 

 consumed oryx, lying as he fell, and it came out at 

 nineteen feet. 



Somalis are exceedingly fond of giving nicknames 

 to one another, more or less personal, and the European 

 does not escape his satire in this direction. All the 

 men in our caravan answered to names of the most 

 irritatingly personal variety, though they all took the 

 for the most part rude attention to some unfortunate 

 peculiarity quite good humouredly. I asked Clarence 

 one day, as we were sitting under a shady guda tree 

 waiting for what might chance to cross our line of 

 fire, what the men had been pleased to christen me. 

 He assented diffidently to the assumption that I had 

 a nickname, but gave me to understand he would 

 rather not mention it, if indeed he had not forgotten 

 it, and a lapse of memory seemed imminent. This 



