142 
SOMALILAND 
beest, and lying flat in the grass on my stomach, I sent my 
men round to try a drive ; but not knowing exactly where 
I lay, the silly men drove them all away from me instead 
of towards me. We passed some huge rocks, which looked 
exactly like haystacks in a large field. Behind one of these 
rocks was a pool of water, round which we found the fresh 
spoor of a large lion. 
Coming home I saw some Egyptian geese, which were as 
tame as domestic geese, and several yellow jackals, the hind- 
legs of one of which I broke, when he began howling 
exactly like a little child, as he made off at a great pace. 
I was soon alongside him on the pony, and, dismounting and 
dodging him round some tiny bushes, I knocked him over 
the head with my rifle-barrels. This jackal is of a dirty 
yellowish-fawn colour, and not nearly so handsome as the 
silver-backed jackal I shot between Berbera and Hargaisa. 
The sun shone out about noon, and a cool wind blew off the 
mist and unveiled the beautiful blue mountains in the 
west. 
As I approached the zareba, my headman appeared at 
the entrance with a huge grin upon his Satanic countenance, 
which I knew by experience meant bad news. He met me, 
saying : ‘ Dar boney dead !’ His loss put a decided damper 
on an otherwise extremely pleasant day. 
When I awoke next morning, or, rather, when I got out 
of bed — for sleep I did not, owing to the unearthly howls of 
innumerable jackals feeding upon my dead pony, and 
frantic prickly heat — I looked out of my tent, and saw one of 
my camels lying dead, killed by the tsetse-fly. 
A party of Abyssinians called whilst I was having break- 
fast, and then I started for the plain. My head-shikari, as 
usual, had fever and could not come out. I hired six horse- 
men to look for lions, and took out a stalking camel with me. 
I was followed, as usual, by a huge crowd of villagers. We 
soon found a hartebeest, which ran across the stalking camel. 
Telling the man who led it to walk on, I sat down and hit 
the antelope behind the shoulder, when he behaved in a 
