206 TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 



and were so overjoyed and charmed with it that we 

 ordered the tents to be placed on the verge, so that 

 the ripples lapped up to our very feet. It was quite 

 sea-side}^, or perhaps, more than anything, reminiscent 

 of a park at home, for all varieties of birds floated on 

 the surface and waded on the edge. When I threw 

 broken biscuit to them they paddled to me in their 

 dozens, flying over each other in the hurry to be first. 



Of course, a swim was what appealed most to us. 

 To be wet all over at one time instead of furtive dabs 

 with a damp sponge seemed the acme of desirability. 

 It seemed difficult of accomplishment. I don't care 

 for mixed bathing at home — if the usual percentage of 

 some twenty women to three men can be called " mixed " 

 — and then there was the awkwardness about kit. Cecily 

 suggested, in evil moment, cutting up the khaili tobes. 

 And we did, fashioning them into bathing-suits 

 during the hot hours of the afternoon, when we should 

 have been using them. The result might not have 

 passed at Ostend ; they were a succcs fou at Sinna- 

 dogho. On giving orders that the lake was to be 

 reserved for us at five o'clock — the men, who were 

 good swimmers, having been dashing in and out all 

 day — the whole camp lined up to see the Mem-sahibs 

 in a new phase. It was funny. We had made the 

 tunics sleeveless, and from the wrist up our skin was 

 as white as white could be, but from the wrist down 

 we were Somali colour to our fingertips. 



We ran in out of our tents, and words cannot tell 

 how glorious that swim was. We dived, we raced, 

 we floated, we dabbled, until at last we knew we must 



