254 TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 



When I was perched on the bough selected I flung 

 the irons down to Cecily, who used them. Next, 

 with cords, we drew up the rifles. Clarence and a 

 hunter used the climbing irons also, and came up like 

 woodpeckers. The men below tethered the sheep, 

 and departed to camp and bed. It was not very long 

 before we wished we had had a platform made. Not 

 being birds, or bird-like, the perching business hurt 

 frightfully. And it was only by getting well against 

 the trunk we could put up with the position at all. 

 Clarence lay extended full length along a bough, on 

 the look-out — " ship-ahoy ! " sort of game. The 

 other hunter imagined himself a Blondin on an in- 

 significant branch beyond me, slightly above me. 

 A ridiculous situation we were all in. I longed to 

 laugh out loud. But we had to be very, very silent 

 and hardly move a muscle. After about an hour I 

 began to get cramp in my foot, and had to press my 

 boot hard against the bough to try to bear the agony 

 calmly. 



A roar broke on the stillness. Things were more 

 interesting for a few moments, and Clarence's tense 

 figure outlined on the branch seemed to be an Argus 

 of many eyes. The Blondin gentleman had got on 

 my nerves long since, and I wished with all my heart 

 he would take a seat. The clouds grew darker and 

 darker, and presently rain began to fall, real Somali 

 rain, not in single drops, but water-spouts. The 

 hunter pirouetting on the adjacent bough missed his 

 footing and fell to the ground — Somalis are not the 

 slightest use as tree-climbers — and caused as much 



