150 THROUGH SOMALILAND AND ABYSSINIA CHAP. 
his hunting-ground ; and I marched to Ali Maan, where I found 
the country much dried up, and water scarce, owing to a dry 
Jildl season and the failure of the Dar or winter rains. The 
Rer Nur, Gadabursi, gave a dance of fifty men, on foot, with 
spear and shield, in my honour ; and, as a return courtesy, I took 
a photograph of them. There were two large karias here. The 
men professed themselves, as usual all over Somaliland, to be 
English ryots (subjects),! and they made complaints against their 
neighbours, which they wished me to settle. While I was at Ali 
Maan the Esa attacked some Gadabursi and killed one of them, 
and in leaving I passed a party of young men going out to try 
and find an Esa to kill, and so square off the score. 
In the Dibiri-Wein country, by a beautiful reed-margined 
river-bed, in the wet sand I found the footmarks of a herd of 
elephants which had passed about twenty-four hours before. 
Following these for a mile I discovered, to my horror, imprinted 
over them the uncompromising outline of a European boot! 
The herd had been followed, not by Colonel Carrington, but by 
another traveller. I left these footprints in deep disgust, with- 
out even inquiring the name of their owner, and marching on in 
haste I reached Gebili a few days later. 
I was riding at noon ahead of the caravan, and had just 
stopped to look at some old stone ruins half buried in rocks and 
grass, when my guide Daura ran up and reported, “ Awalé is 
killed,” and when the caravan came up it was headed by Awalé 
Yasin strapped on a camel, in great pain, with his leg broken 
below the knee, the tibia sticking out of the flesh for two or 
three inches. He had been fixing a loose load when the camel 
had fallen on him, crushing his leg. I gave him chlorodyne to 
try and alleviate the pain. Then as we neared the camp we 
lifted him off the camel, and four men bore him down the steep 
descent of fifty feet to the Gebili watercourse, to the south of 
which I pitched my tent. Following a sheep-track, we soon 
found a few shepherds of the Jibril Abokr, who were retumming 
from watering their flocks. They sent a mounted messenger 
to their karias, lying ten miles to the south, and next morning 
a native expert at bone-setting arrived on the scene. I explained 
I was not a doctor, and that the sick man might choose between 
us; and he chose the Somali, while I stood by to help and see 
fair-play. I am not responsible for the following method :— 
First they washed the leg with warm water. There was a 
1 Adapted by Somdlis from the Hindustani. 
