58 
SOMALILAND 
But I could not help taking notice of him ; his poor thin 
face haunted me. I went back into the zareba and ordered 
out some antelope meat, for we had more than we could 
eat ourselves, and distributed it among the villagers, giving 
the poor lunatic the largest share. They took the meat 
some distance away, and then began such a row, such a 
babel of angry voices, such a brandishing of spears and 
daggers, as I had never heard or seen before. They hacked 
at one another’s portion .with knives, and every now and 
then a frantic yell would go up, as some poor unfortunate 
man received a knife across his knuckles as he strove to 
hold what had been given him. At length I could stand 
the din no longer, and gave them to understand that, unless 
they cleared off to their own village hard by, I would take 
all the meat back again by force. This silenced them, and 
they all bustled off to continue their wrangling within their 
own zarebas. 
It was now getting quite dark, so, having brought out a 
camp-chair, I sat in it, enveloped in a rug (for the nights 
were very chilly), opposite the kid tethered outside. A 
small peephole had, as usual, been made in the fence 
through which I was to keep watch, little thinking after 
the noise of the evening that any leopards would come that 
night. It was quite dark except within the zareba, where 
the glow of the camp-fires presented a curiously weird 
scene. There in the centre lay the camels, complacently 
chewing the cud, their eyes every now and then flashing 
out like brilliant sparks in the firelight. Huddled together 
in small groups round the fires squatted my tired-out men, 
their blankets wrapped closely around them, and talking 
in undertones. In the distance could be heard the singing 
of the villagers as they danced to the doleful sound of 
drumming tom-toms. 
Presently I dozed off in my chair. How long I slept I 
know not, but something made me start up and open my 
eyes. I peered through the loophole into the darkness. 
There stood the white kid tethered to the stake. All was 
