TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 199 



longed to take the whole lot to the wells to drink ? 

 but of course we had to go through the ceremonial 

 properly. The dibaltig is a Somali way of doing honour 

 or paying allegiance, and is only performed at the 

 election of a Sultan, or for the offering of deference 

 due to an English traveller. 



With spears held aloft the Somalis united in the 

 strident familiar " Mot ! Mot ! Mot ! io Mot ! " (Hail ! 

 Hail ! Hail ! again Hail !) — to which, as a safe remark, 

 I replied " Mot ! " The wrong thing, of course, and 

 Clarence, who stood just behind, whispered I was to 

 say " Thank you," which I did in Somali, very badly. 



Then we invited our circus party to a meal, and I 

 said if they could produce a couple of sheep from 

 somewhere I would pay for the banquet. We got 

 through all right, but the whole of the day was taken 

 up with the princely entertainment. The sheep duly 

 arrived, and the entire camp helped to roast them, 

 when with bowls of rice and ghee as a top up, every 

 one made merry at our expense. We bestowed a few 

 presents also, of which the most successful was a 

 tusba, wooden beads to be counted in prayer saying. 

 I was sorry we had not provided ourselves with more of 

 these to give away, as they seemed so intensely popular. 

 Cecily gave one Berserk a piece of gay red ribbon, and 

 he seemed very much delighted. They do not care 

 for things of which no use can be made, as they are not a 

 silly nation. Red scarves and ribbon can always be 

 used up effectively for the ponies' trappings on dibaltig 

 and other great occasions. 



We managed to effect an exchange here. I wanted 



