TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 211 



There were dabs of black and white here and there on 

 its thick khaki-coloured coat, and the tail was immense, 

 and white tipped. Each foot had but four toes, with 

 much- worn claws. We delayed progress for a little 

 while for the skin to be secured. Meanwhile, we rode 

 off a short distance and sighted some gereniik, far out 

 of range, and dik-dik in multitudes popped up. 



We got into some thick thorn cover, too dense for 

 the ponies' comfort, after a short ten minutes, and 

 turning, on another path, we startled some large 

 animal which crashed off in front of us. We separated, 

 dashing different ways, to try and cut whatever it was 

 off, and saw a reddish antelope careering away across 

 a small open expanse. It was a gereniik, hornless ; 

 a doe, of course — I say " of course," because our luck, 

 or rather the lack of it, in this part of the world, was 

 most depressing. To have endured that Marehan 

 Desert for such " sport " as this ! We kicked our- 

 selves, figuratively speaking, every day. 



Our next halt at a place garnished with a name was 

 El Dara. " El " in Somali parlance means " well," 

 so anything "El " signifies water ought to be in the 

 vicinity. Very often it isn't. But it ought to be — 

 like a good many other things. 



I don't see how any one could master the Somali 

 language thoroughly — any foreigner, I mean. There 

 are no books to be got about it, because the language 

 has not as yet been reduced or elevated by pen and 

 ink. Reading anything seems an intense puzzle to 

 the native mind, and to be able to do it raises one 

 miles in their estimation ! Only the scholars can read 



