40 
SOMALILAND 
I replied that it was against the rules to let a native 
have a rifle. 
‘ I not let Political Itesident know you give me,’ he 
said. 
But I knew how fast news spreads in Somaliland, and how 
it would soon reach the coast that this man was possessed 
of such a wonderful hundooJc. So, as he would take nothing 
else, I was obliged to let the pony go. 
That night I tied up a donkey as bait for a lion, but did 
not sleep over it. We were encamped at a place called 
Lanlibi (the Village of Male Trees). 
Early next morning I got up and went to look at the 
donkey ; there sure enough he stood where we had left him, 
alive and well ! After sending him home, I got a ridicu- 
lously easy shot at a young oryx with a poor head, and 
made a disgraceful miss. He had been sighted from the 
top of a tree by my head-shikari. We crept quite close in 
the thick bushes, and I got a broadside chance. 
After this we sighted a herd of upwards of fifty oryx, 
some of them having remarkably fine heads. Where they 
were feeding it was very ‘ oppen ’ country, and it was 
impossible to approach them, so we showed ourselves to 
move them, and then followed for at least a couple of hours, 
when they very kindly led us straight back to camp, and 
all passed within 60 yards of my tent, taking no notice of 
it whatever. 
In the afternoon I bought a chestnut pony, saddle and 
bridle for 100 rupees after a great deal of bargaining, 
and at length possessed an animal which could at any time 
stop a lion in ‘ oppen ’ country. It then commenced to 
pour with rain, just as I was going out hunting again, so I 
had to content myself with listening to the singing and 
chattering of twenty-three idle men for several hours. 
When I say twenty- three I forget the caravan which had 
joined us. In all we were thirty-one souls (if black men have 
souls), twenty-eight camels, two donkeys, three ponies, and 
a flock of sheep. The natives hated the rain, and dreaded 
