70 
SOMALILAND 
told me that my headman had sold my camel as I sus- 
pected.) Well might he grin, for now he had another 
camel less to load and lead. I could have shot him as he 
leered at me with his wicked eyes. 
We pitched camp at the foot of the hills, at a place 
called Darrah Sor, and had hardly commenced building a 
zareba, when I sighted four or five ' owl ’ close to camp. 
Seizing my rifle, I made good use of a little dried-up river- 
bed and came close up to them. I made the most of it b}' 
filing three shots and laying low three antelopes in the 
same number of minutes. The yells and singing of the 
Somalis on beholding three animals on the ground at once 
can better be imagined than described. Twenty minutes 
after, having photographed the trio in front of my tent, I 
was eating their venison in the setting sun. Such is life 
and death. As usual, after sunset the lightning flashed, 
the thunder rolled, the wind blew, and down came the rain 
again, as rain it only can in Somaliland. This would be 
another excuse for not marching on the morrow, I knew. 
The rain ceased in a couple of hours, and the men made 
night hideous by singing and dancing until a late hour. 
As I expected, next morning up came m}^ headman with : 
‘ No march, camel-mats too wet.’ 
However, on examination I found nearly all perfectly 
dry, as it had not rained again during the night. So I 
ordered ‘ Quick march !’ On the way we found two gere- 
nook, one of which I struck in the shoulder as he faced me, 
whereupon he took downhill, the worst thing possible for 
himself when hit in that place, as the blood all ran into his 
gullet and choked him. Owing to the thick bush, he was 
very difficult to find, but after a long hunt we discovered 
him under a bush, and after stalking him I seized him by 
the horns whilst my shikari finished him. He possessed 
a most graceful head and neck. This beautiful antelope is 
longer in the neck and leg than the owl, and is of a pretty 
reddish-brown colour. The tips of the hdrns bend forward. 
The gerenook is much more difficult, in my experience, to 
