20 
SOMALILAND 
denuded of every one, so great has been the influx of big- 
game hunters in the last few years. As we wended our 
way through the now thick bush, my pony stumbling every 
7 yards, my syce began grubbing with his spear in the 
ground, and soon afterwards produced an object like a huge 
oblong potato, which he broke, offering me some to eat. 
The inside was white and juicy, and had a most peculiar 
and bitter taste. The Somalis call this root ‘lika.’ 
In the afternoon I caught some butterflies, which I found 
. few and far between, not nearly so numerous as in Ceylon 
or India, where I could often catch them as fast as I could 
sweep my net. The temjlerature here was 95° at noon in 
my tent, pitched in the shade. As I was away an hour 
looking for butterflies, about a dozen of my men set out 
in every direction to look for me, thinking I was lost. 
Because I had no gun with me, of course I saw innumer- 
able birds (including some francolin), a hare, a jackal, and 
dik-dik antelopes. 
Early in the afternoon Sheik Muttar, the swell of 
Hargaisa, came to call. He was a nice-looking man with 
a gray beard, and said ‘ Salaam !’ on pressing hands. (The 
Somali takes one’s hand in his, but does not shake it.) 
We got along very well, thanks to my interpreter. I 
asked him how his flocks and herds were, and he answered 
that he had none, and then he asked me how many lions I 
had killed, and I said none. Then, after a pause, he asked 
for a present, so I rummaged in a box and found six pocket- 
knives, and asked him to choose one. He promptly picked 
out the best, asked if I was going to give him anything 
else, and, receiving an answer in the negative, slowly 
marched out of my tent without saying ‘ Thank you ’ or 
‘ Good-bye.’ 
I then went out bird -collecting. In the evening the 
man I had left to track the koodoo came in with the head- 
skin and skull. He said he had tracked it some ten miles 
south of Hargaisa, and had at length come upon it stone- 
dead in a rocky ravine. The horns of this magnificent 
