160 TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 



placed hors dc combat and unloaded, thus disorganising 

 everything. We can take the average load at 250 

 pounds, though it frequently exceeds this, because 

 naturally loads vary with the nature of the things to 

 be carried, bulky or compact, easy or difficult. On 

 being required to walk, one sick animal refused to 

 budge another inch. It is very hard to judge the 

 extent of the illness of a camel. They do not act any 

 differently, ill or well, as far as my small experience 

 goes. Clarence and the head camel-man made certain 

 that the creature was sick unto death, and finally it had 

 to be shot. It would not walk, we could not tow it, 

 and humanity forbade our leaving it to fend for itself. 

 All the camels were bothered no end by a small fly, a 

 species of gad-fly, I think, not very large, but most 

 mischievous. 



One or two of the animals were so overcome with 

 the attentions of these pests of insects they took to 

 rolling, which, all encumbered as the camels were, 

 could not but be exceedingly detrimental to the load. 

 These troubles continued for some days, and the 

 camel we lost may have been too badly bitten to go 

 on. This fly is a cause of great loss to the Somali 

 herds. Another joined the attack, a fearsome creature 

 too — much larger again — and he seemed to prefer 

 people to camels. We, Cecily and myself, kept him 

 off by bathing the exposed parts of our skin in solution 

 of carbolic, and this seemed to him an anathema- 

 maranatha and was to us a god-send. We only wished 

 we had sufficient to tub all the camels. I think our 

 precautions against these annoying flies helped to keep 



