REPORTS OF LEOPARDS 
45 
camp, when my headman greeted me with the pleasing 
intelligence that my sick camel had died during the night. 
He shortly after remarked, ^ Sare, I want to ask you 
queshun.’ But instead of asking me a question, he com- 
plained that he had just bought three sheep at the exorbi- 
tant price of 6 rupees each, as we were short of meat for 
the men. I blew him up, as usual, and told him I sus- 
pected he had paid but 3 rupees each, and had pocketed 
the remaining 3 rupees ; but he only threw up his hands 
in amazement, and replied, ‘ Sare, I no swindler !’ which 
was one of the biggest lies he ever uttered. 
I scratched myself fearfully that day in the thick thorn- 
bushes, and two little bits of thorn refused to come out of 
my nose, giving me not a little pain ; added to which, 
whilst skinning a large kind of centipede, the short hairs 
came off over the tips of my fingers, causing a very annoy- 
ing rash. In the afternoon I went to see if there were 
any tracks of lions round the dead camel, and found dozens 
of vultures devouring it, and the fresh tracks of a leopard, 
so I went back to camp, and ordered out half a dozen men 
to build a zareba close to it. Just as the sun set my 
<y 
shikari walked in with the head and skin of my wounded 
oryx, so the day did not turn out to be blank, after all. I 
was too tired to go to sleep by the dead camel, which was 
some distance from the camp, so sent two men to watch 
over it. In the morning they returned, and reported 
eighteen shebelles (leopards). I sent to the village, and 
bought three kids to tie up for them. 
We had now been loafing about this part of the country 
for eight days, and had seen nothing but gerenook, oryx, 
and ‘ owl,’ ' owl,’ oryx, and gerenook, day after day. We 
had had some bait out every night, but the lions appeared 
to be venison-feeders here entirely. I determined to leave 
the place on the morrow in disgust. On examining my 
old pony’s back, I found it in such a swollen state that I 
determined to lance it ; so, having hobbled and thrown him, 
I successfully performed the operation, getting rid of a 
