TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 217 



grew too fierce to let us proceed. We did a few more 

 miles in the evening. Every hour we were not on 

 trek we spent in exhausted sleep. Even as we marched 

 I was often in a condition of somnolence that pre- 

 vented my guiding the pony in the least. 



We passed a fine range of mountains, said to be 

 alive with leopards. We saw the tracks of several, 

 but time did not permit of a stalk. However, one 

 came to stalk us, very thoughtfully, and saved us a 

 lot of trouble. We made the round of the camp that 

 night very late before turning in to see that all was 

 extra safe. The camels were lying in rows, some with 

 heads outstretched flat, snake-like, on the sand, 

 asleep, others chewing the cud, watching us lazily with 

 keen bright eyes threading our way among the debris 

 of the stores. Our candle lamps were hardly needed 

 here, the bright fires lighted us to bed, and we had 

 but just settled down when the most prodigious 

 shouting and banging of tin pans together roused us 

 up again. Then two shots reverberated on the night. 

 By the time I was sufficiently clad to emerge with 

 propriety the camp was more or less calm again, save 

 for a few men jabbering in excited groups. The ponies 

 stood in a bunch, and one or two of the camels had 

 risen. A leopard had jumped the zareba, but was 

 immediately turned by having a piece of lighted 

 brushwood thrust in his face. One of the hunters had 

 fired after the retreating animal, and claimed to have 

 hit it. As no man of the black persuasion cares to go 

 outside a zareba at night, all investigations had to be 

 put off until day-break, when, without waiting for 



