280 TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 



skin, the shoulder providing the second quality 

 only. 



Higher and higher we climbed each trek, the 

 going much slower now. The camels took their time 

 over the so far simple ascent. We sighted gereniik 

 many times, both when riding alone and with the 

 caravan. Many times we pursued them, and as many 

 times returned discouraged. Stalking was a very 

 difficult business here, the bushes all grew aslant, and 

 the buck had a perfection of balance unknown to us. 

 One try of Cecily's very much amused us. She got 

 a chance at a gereniik, after a stiff pursuit over hill 

 and down dale, fired, and the kick from her rifle over- 

 balanced her as she clung with uncertain feet to the 

 hillside, and she slid like an animated toboggan 

 downwards. Goodness knows where the gereniik or 

 the bullet went to. 



We camped on a beautiful range one night, where a 

 small plateau seemed to invite us to rest awhile. The 

 sun was just setting, and the mighty mountains around 

 were bathed in a roseate glow. It was a most perfect 

 scene. The camp that night was like a biblical 

 picture — the sleeping camels, the recumbent forms of 

 their drivers, and over all a sky of such wondrous blue 

 dotted with stars innumerable. 



Next the sublime is always the ridiculous. Another 

 camel man fell sick here, but his case was not really 

 genuine, I verily believe. Cecily and I feigned to 

 have found among our things a medicine of most 

 marvellous properties, warranted to cure in one dose 

 all the ills that flesh is heir to. Quinine was its name 



