216 TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 



Cecily and I could not help feeling very sorry, but in 

 half an hour the men had all forgotten, and marched 

 chanting a droning song. The camels that had been 

 the charge of the dead man now were controlled by a 

 lively little fellow, and the whole incident seemed of 

 no moment. 



Any amount of wild geese abode here. It was 

 rather like keeping a vast poultry farm. The birds 

 were so ridiculously tame and easily caught. At our 

 next trek we should have to consider the return journey 

 across the Marehan as begun, and we should not be 

 likely to make any water for five or six days. Every- 

 thing was carefully filled up, and the march commenced 

 at 3.30 a.m. The net result of this Marehan excursion 

 was one leopard and one wild dog, which we would 

 just as soon have been without as with. They may 

 be hard to shoot, and come on — I have heard so — but 

 take it how you like, with everything said that can 

 be to belaud them into valuable treasures, dogs aren't 

 very grand trophies when all is done. Who values a 

 coyote in Canada ? 



We passed thousands of grazing camels. The men 

 in charge weren't bothering about water at all, but 

 drank milk only. I arranged with Clarence that our 

 men were to go on to rations of dates, and do without 

 rice for the trip over the waterless desert. Rice in 

 such quantities sucks up such an amount of water, 

 and it was safer to keep it for drinking purposes merely. 

 The dates are very nutritious, and natives often live 

 on nothing else for days. 



We camped about eleven o'clock, when the sun 



