194 
SOMALILAND 
be a lie, I returned home very tired and went to bed. I 
had not slept long before I was awakened by cries of 
‘ Shebel! shebel !’ (Leopard! leopard !). Seizing my gun and 
some ‘ BB ’ shot cartridges, I rushed out of my tent, and 
saw a crowd of men in the direction of the traps I had set. 
Bunning up, I saw an animal in one of the traps, which 
my men assured me was a leopard and begged me to shoot ; 
but as I was equally positive it was a spotted hyaena, and 
not wishing to disturb lion by firing my gun, I ordered 
them to hit it on the head. In the general excitement 
which then ensued, my headman picked up a hartgol, and, 
swinging it round to strike the beast, hit me full across 
the face, knocking me down and cutting my nose and cheek 
badly. For several seconds I could see nothing but stars 
and blood, but after bathing my face and ascertaining that 
my nose was not broken, but that the hysena’s back was, I 
turned in again. This spotted hyaena was a three -quarters- 
grown male with very good mane and tawny yellow skin. 
I consider hyaenas, and especially the striped variety, by no 
means a trophy to be despised, as in Somaliland they seem 
to have unusually fine skins free from mange. 
Next morning an old man came into camp oftering to 
show us a village round which the man-eating lion 
prowled every night. I was getting perfectly sick of this 
lion-hunting game, but as there was absolutely nothing 
else to be done, I consented at last to follow him, after 
making him swear that what he said was true. Accord- 
ingly, after a very long march we reached a village called 
Gorly, taking with us three camels and a few men. The 
headman of the village, who was an old man with one eye 
and a gray beard, met me on arrival and behaved in a 
very friendly way. He showed me where the Hon had 
squatted the night before in an empty zareba by the side 
of one full of sheep, and when the noises in the village had 
ceased, he had jumped over the fence and stolen a fat sheep. 
We built a zareba, and he gave me a sheep to tie up out- 
side. Nothing but hysenas, however, broke the silence of 
