NOTES ON SOMALILAND. 291 
by a lion four years before when in the company of an English sportsman 
and had been for months under my eye in the Berbera Hospital, recovering 
from his wounds. The other, who was the brother-in-law of the first, had 
also been a shikari, and as such had been one of the best trackers among his 
eraft, but having been reported by more than one sportsman for funking 
in’ the presence of dangerous game, he was not subsequently allowed to serve 
as “first shikari.” Being too proud, I presume, to go in a humbler capacity, 
as he might have done, he and his crippled kinsman had joined forces, and 
having reverted to the primitive habits of their tribe, were hunting and 
trapping for their livelihood, in the Haud, Atthe present time they were 
engaged in the doubtful pastime of killing ostriches by snare and poison, 
as they had to confess, Just beyond their little shelter, ina slight dip in 
the surface of the plain, they had put up a tiny zareeba, wherein were their 
grass vessels of water and the other scanty necessities of their frugal 
existence ; there too were the results of their labours,a number of Ostrich 
eggs, in rows beneath the thorn fence, and a few strips of the meat of the 
great bird,in the form of “ biltong,” (which was their only food) spitted 
to dry on the thorns thereof, The two camels which completed their ménage, 
and which they seat for water every ten days or so, were now away with 
their women at the wells, a day and-a-half’s journey distant, 
' I remonstrated with them regarding the. poaching character of their 
present occupation, but after all, as they ventured to point out, they must 
live, and this was the only life they knew, a precarious one enough in all 
conscience ; moreover they were in Abyssinian territory, where some one 
else would poach the ostriches if they did not; so I did not feel able to say 
much, The following were their methods, and I confess to being much 
interested in the details of them. 
No.1. When one of the party, in the course of his rambles over the 
prairie, alights on the nest of a pair of ostriches, (which, except for 
the absence of water in close proximity, is very similar in appearance 
to that of Gus antigone, the Indian Sarus) he entwines the coarse stalks of 
the nearest tussock of grass, so as to form a small screen or lair, wherein he 
squats with his bow and poisoned arrows and awaits the return of the old 
birds. Then if all goes welland nothing awakens the suspicions of these 
wariest of bipeds, the insidious poison of a single arrow fairly planted any- 
where in the flesh, slowly but surely does its work, and the unlucky bira is 
eventually brought to bag. 
No.2. This is the more scientific device if more unscrupulous in its 
ingenuity. A number of bright yellowish-green berries or pods are collected, 
of which ostriches are very fond, and which in size and appearance very 
‘much resemble the outer green shell of the horse-chestnut; these are 
filled with the same “ Wabai”’ or poison that is used for the arrows, and 
of which prussic acid is, I imagine, the chief element, as it is obtained by 
