TWO DIANAS IN SOMALI LAND 263 



must be reached at the earliest possible moment. 

 Clarence had reported that the supply was dangerously 

 low. We traversed very ugly country, sand and 

 sand, with a few low scrub bushes dotted about — a 

 dispiriting vista enough. We shot a dik-dik for 

 dinner, and so fared sumptuously. There is about as 

 much meat on the body of this tiny buck as one gets 

 on an English hare. 



At last we came to the wells. We found a number 

 of Somalis making a spa out of the place, and selling 

 the water, drop by drop. I don't know if the wells 

 were some one's birthright, or if some speculative 

 Somali jumped the claim, but a repellent old gentleman, 

 who looked as though he had not tried the precious 

 liquid on himself for some years, gave us to under- 

 stand he owned the place. He asked such wealth for 

 a mere dole of water we decided to camp and think 

 it out. He knew the value of what he had to sell, 

 the old sinner, for though we were but a few marches 

 now from the end of the Haud our caravan was a good 

 size, and its consumption necessarily great. We had 

 the tents set up right there, and prepared to improve 

 the shining hour by seeking some sport on the Toyo 

 Plain. 



I discarded my sling altogether, and we started from 

 camp early, reaching the great " bun " after a stiffish 

 ride. We left the ponies in charge of the hunters 

 some way from the fringe of grass, and in a certain 

 amount of cover. We stood for quite a long while 

 watching the sea of waving green which was not yet 

 tall enough to conceal the numerous bands of game 



