174 TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 



little Western mining camp, when its familiarity struck 

 my ear. But it eluded me, until at last I placed it. 

 You remember where Dante, guided by Virgil, comes 

 on the suffering spirits of Paolo and Francesca : 



" Noi che tingemmo il mondo di sanguino." 



There in a nutshell lies the origin of the " painting 

 the town red " phrase. One cannot but admire the 

 literary points of American slang, though we know 

 there is so little originality in the mind of man, even of 

 the American. There is no time to create. It is 

 simpler to take the ready-made, so that all our speech 

 and writing is unconsciously but a series of quotations 

 from the great human poets, who expressed simple 

 human thoughts in the most perfect and yet the 

 simplest words. Every thought we have can be 

 expressed in quotations from Horace, Dante, and 

 Shakespeare. 



The strength of our party on that memorable morn- 

 ing comprised six of us — Cecily, myself, Clarence and 

 three hunters. The men led us first to the kill, from 

 which two sleuth-like forms glided away — jackals, 

 young ones, with youthful rough coats. Vultures 

 poised motionless in the blue, or nearer flew sluggishly, 

 with legs hanging loosely, screaming. 



The dead aoul poisoned the air with odoriferous 

 whiffs, and I found it difficult to believe that a lion had 

 returned to a carcase in such an advanced stage of 

 decomposition, but apparently it was so. Among the 

 devious trails of hyaena and jackal were the indents of 

 lion spoor. Massed often, and there in the sand was 

 the plainly seen mark of the crouched beast as he 



