TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 241 



an opposite direction. Sometimes a bit of thorn 

 would hold me lovingly, and all my blandishments 

 could not make it let me go. I only obtained freedom 

 with leaving a piece of my coat as tribute. Vulturine 

 guinea-fowl ran at the sight of us, raising their naked 

 necks and setting off at great speed to make safety. 

 They are beautiful birds, and the prismatic colours 

 of the feathers show up against the green of the armo 

 very distinctly. Doves cooed above us, but I could 

 not catch a glimpse of one. As we neared the middle 

 of the oasis we came on a few scattered half-eaten 

 bones — a dead lesser koodoo. He had furnished a 

 meal for a lion, doubtless, and later for one of his own 

 people. One or two varieties of antelope are very fond 

 of nibbling dry white bones. 



We took a turn to the right, and on the instant a 

 beautiful lesser koodoo took a gigantic leap over an 

 in-the-way bunch of aloe scrub. He disappeared 

 into a thicket and I stood motionless listening. So 

 I suspect did my koodoo. All was still, but only for 

 a moment. The amateur Cook's Guide got entangled 

 somehow or other with a trailing creeper, and to my 

 complete horror and amazement let off my .500 Ex- 

 press which he was carrying. He must have been 

 holding it in very unskilled fashion. The bullet 

 missed my head by a couple of inches. I felt the 

 whiz of it and heard it ricochet into the trees. I was 

 so unnerved I sat down and thought things out. My 

 hunter was quite oblivious to any shock I might have 

 received, because the stock of the rifle had hit him hard 

 somewhere — I was too vexed to inquire the exact 



Q 



