214 TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 



Lions and all other game seemed about to follow the 

 dodo in these parts. We were so thoroughly disgusted 

 now that all our object was to push back to our old 

 haunts in the Ogaden, and enjoy ourselves for the 

 short time left to us in the country. I am not wilfully 

 rubbing it in about this Marehan and Haweea locality, 

 because I myself hate bewailing as much as any one. 

 But, to let you in on the ground floor, all this part of 

 the expedition was hateful, and our one desire was to 

 get it over. No wonder our shikari uncle, wise in his 

 generation, had never passed the Bun Arnwein. We 

 intended to lie low about our having done so also. 



After our temper had dwindled a little we went to 

 see the sick man, armed with a few medicines, and 

 our vexation merged into forge tfulness, and then to 

 pity. The poor fellow lay on a camel mat, his dirty 

 tobe tangled about him, in acute pain, and often in 

 delirium. It could not be a touch of the sun very 

 well, for Somalis and the sun are well acquainted. 

 Cecily suggested that dirty water of a short time ago 

 as the root of the evil, but here again, had we not 

 seen the men drinking quite as filthy water, and 

 thriving the better for it. We really were stuck to 

 know what to do, and fled to our everlasting remedy, 

 champagne. It was difficult to get any down, and the 

 little we managed to dispose of made no earthly differ- 

 ence to the writhing man. Cecily tried catapultic 

 questions in a Somali accent that came from her 

 inner consciousness. 



" Wurrer anonesha " (head-ache) ? 



" Aloche anonesha " (stomach-ache) ? 



