62 
SOMALILAND 
huge tulip, the colouring of pink and white inside being 
most delicate and pretty. 
As I sat having my breakfast, two wild-geese passed over 
my head. I watched the men unloading the camels for 
the mid-day rest as they sang what sounded like ‘ Alima 
tadema alima tay, alima kedgeree alima ka.’ I asked what 
they were talking about, and was told it meant : ‘ Now, 
camel dear, if you will be good and keep still we will unload 
you as fast as we can !’ 
The afternoon I spent at Bolarli was the hottest I 
had experienced since leaving Berbera thirty-four days 
before. The perspiration poured out of me the whole 
I noticed thorn-trees, as I was tramping through the 
sand, with trunks of a brilliant greenish -yellow. They 
looked as if they had all been richly coated with Aspinall’s 
enamel. This thorn-tree bore a thorn which beat the 
record in length of any I ever saw. Above is a specimen 
reduced to half its actual size. 
I went out hunting in the evening, and saw some oryx 
which must have heard us coming over some stony ground. 
I also saw a perfectly black ground squirrel, and wished I 
had my gun with me, as I had never seen one like it before. 
Dik-dik antelope were very plentiful here. 
At 4.45 we pitched for the night close to the rocky Farfan 
hills, which were thinly covered with bush. My men now 
held family prayer three times a day, and a very impressive 
sight it was to see them all stand up in a long line and 
touch their ears as a hint to Allah to listen to what they 
were going to say. But I got tired of the sight as I got to 
know the characters of the men better, and when I knew 
they were such hypocrites, it made me want to kick them 
