322 THROUGH SOMALILAND AND ABYSSINIA — CHAP. 
MIScELLANEOUS NOTES 
Leopards (Shabél) are very abundant in Somaliland, and are 
the great scourge ofthe shepherds. They spring into karias at 
night without fear, and nearly all the losses among sheep and 
goats are caused either by leopards or hyenas. On Gdlis Range, 
round Mandeira, they are especially common, and it is not an 
unusual thing to hear them coughing by day from the shelter of 
some cave in the mountains. The sound is most like that of a 
saw being drawn to and fro through a plank, only much deeper, 
and can be heard at a great distance. Leopards are so stealthy 
that they are seldom seen by day. The best way to kill one is 
to wait among the tribes near the foot of the mountain, and 
having found a karia particularly favoured by them, to construct 
a shelter and tie up a goat (preferably a half-grown one), which 
will bleat ; if the leopard charge the goat, it is best to wait till 
he is quietly lying over the victim drinking its blood, offering a 
certain shot. Another way is to find out the cave where the 
leopard lives, and to tie up a goat just before dusk and sit over 
it for half an hour. 
Leopards are found in all kinds of ground, and not necessarily 
in hilly country. I have had them spring into my camp more 
than a dozen times, and one which could not get over our zeriba 
in any other way, ran along the branch of a tree under which 
our camp had been pitched, and dropped perpendicularly down 
among us, close to the goats ; luckily he was driven off in time by 
the sentry. Many goats have been killed inside my camp by 
leopards. 
Wart-hogs (Phacocherus wthiopicus), called Défar by the 
Somalis, are common, especially along the base of Gélis. Most 
of the ground which they inhabit is not suitable for hard riding, 
so when they have exceptionally fine tusks they are shot. The 
Somali, being a good Mussulman, will touch neither a dead wart- 
hog nor the knife which has been used in cutting off the head ; 
and if tempted by a fine pair of tusks to kill a wart-hog, the 
traveller must be ready to tackle this job himself. It is tough 
work skinning the head, and annoying to have to hang the tin 
box or bucket, in which the skull has been packed, daily on a 
camel, to say nothing of preserving the head and cleaning the 
skull. I have always done this work myself with as pleasant a 
face as possible, in spite of strong looks of disapproval from the 
natives ; and the few wart-hog skulls I have brought home well 
