TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 189 



because in their youth they are valuable to tend the 

 camels and goats, and some day can be bartered for 

 sheep or ponies. Some Somali women go to their 

 lords with dowries, and, as with us at home, are the 

 more important for their wealth. Consideration is 

 shown them that is lacking towards their poorer sisters 

 who toil and moil at heavy work the whole day long, 

 and when on trek load all the camels, and do all the 

 heavy camp work. 



We tried our best to propitiate this Mijertain savage 

 — he really was an ordinary savage — but he only 

 glowered and received all overtures in the worst pos- 

 sible taste and rudeness. One could have told he was 

 rich even if we hadn't seen his banking account feed- 

 ing in their thousands. 



This tribe looked on the sporting spirit with distrust, 

 evidently suspecting ulterior motives. It would be 

 hard to convey to an utterly savage mind that we took 

 on all this sturm und drang of a big expedition 

 merely because we loved it. Trophies here descended 

 to being meat, and meat of all else topped the scale. 

 Still, one could only eat a certain amount before being 

 very ill, so why such energy to procure an unlimited 

 quantity ? I don't think our sex was ever discovered 

 here at all. Englishwomen were not exactly thick on 

 the ground, and I think it possible the melancholy 

 Mijertain had never previously seen one. Probably 

 his intelligence, of a very low order indeed, did not 

 take him farther than thinking what particularly under- 

 sized, emasculated English sahibs these two were. 



After a consultation we decided it would be really 



