130 
SOMALILAND 
west, and he is a clever and a lucky man who kills an 
elephant now in Somaliland. 
That evening, as I was having my bath, my shikari 
suddenly seized my rifle, and, shouting ‘ Hyaena coming 
wells !’ dashed out of my tent. I followed clothed in a pair 
of slippers, but when we got to the wells the hyaena had 
vanished. 
I was driven nearly frantic every night now by prickly 
heat, which was worse than a hundred thousand mosquito- 
bites ! At this place I killed the very curious Paradise 
Whydah bird, a 23retty little black and buff bird with a 
long tail of four feathers, and two rounded feathers where 
the tail joins the body. This bird flies very slowly through 
the air, beating its wings with great rapidity, as it would 
appear, to propel its enormous tail along. 
We marched the whole of the next day along the dried- 
up Sule River bed, and disturbed three koodoo cows which 
were grazing on the bank. 
During the morning we met a caravan which reported 
that a lion had killed two women the night before in a 
village half a day’s march off. One of the women he had 
taken bodily off and eaten for his supper. We saw several 
lion tracks in the river-bed, but the animals themselves still 
kept out of my way. 
At night six of my men were down with fever. As they 
all had to be carried, the camels were in consequence 
terribly overladen, rendering quick marching impossible. 
My stock of quinine was now rapidly diminishing every day. 
The whole of the next day we marched up the Sule River 
bed. Early in the morning a hysena ran across the river, 
but I missed him as he was disappearing in the bushes on 
the opposite side. After this we did not see a single head of 
game for the remainder of the day. 
At mid-day we rested and watered the camels at some 
deep wells dug in the river-bed at a place called Megadaha- 
mado. Here was to be seen a large and well-built zareba 
which had been erected by Abyssinians some six years 
