TWO DIANAS IN SOMALI LAND 277 



because he had brought down a hartebeest that Cecily 

 had missed — missed on purpose, she said, to give him 

 the pleasure of bagging it. Anyway, there lay the 

 trophy, a present, Ralph said, for me. I thanked him 

 profusely, because our collection was not overdone 

 with this variety. 



I do not really admire this antelope very much, or 

 perhaps I should say I admire it less than any other, 

 since every antelope has some points of undoubted 

 beauty. Their faces are what baulk me. They are 

 so silly looking, like a particularly inane cow — a cow's 

 face, and yet not a cow's face, and though very massive 

 and magnificent in the fore they pan out to nothing in 

 the hind quarters. The horns, set in sockets, are 

 hardly ever the same, curving this way and that way,i 

 as cow's do. Hartebeest are the quickest goers in all 

 the antelope world. They are never spoken of by the 

 natives by any other name than " sig." And this is 

 odd, because in other varieties I frequently heard the 

 correct designation. 



The best of friends must part, and we were no 

 exception to the rule. However, we buoyed ourselves 

 up with the notion that it was not to be for long. For 

 the second time the opposition shoot watched our 

 departure, but this time we all had an interest in the 

 affair — very different to the almost animosity that 

 actuated us at the start. Souvent femme varie, and 

 man too. 



Our caravan got on the move once more. The 

 hams were not well filled because we had used up all 

 the water, whoever it belonged to, and this made it 



