198 
SOMALILAND 
two ‘ gallery ’ shots, the crowd of natives which had come 
to water their cattle shouting out with astonishment when 
the ducks doubled up in the air and fell. 
Going home my men said they knew a short-cut to camp ; 
so, leaving the cattle track, we entered thick bush, and were 
soon afterwards utterly lost. I began to get very thirsty, 
foolishly omitting to. drink at the lake, and not having 
my water-bottle with me. For several hours we wandered 
about in the dense jungle hopelessly lost. We fired our 
rifles and got up into trees, but all to no purpose. We 
tried to find the lake again, and then the cattle track. My 
throat became parched and very sore, and I began to 
cough. Just when I had had quite enough of it, w^e fell in 
with a boy tending some cattle, wFo put us on a cattle 
track and we finally reached camp in time. There was still 
no news of Stanford, and as I could find no guide to take 
me back to him, I could do nothing. 
Next morning I w^as seized with fever, sore throat, and 
swollen glands. A man brought me in a present of a young 
bull, which immediately proved most refractory. First it 
charged the men, whodeapt over the zareba like toreadors 
out of a bull-ring. Then it charged the camels, causing a 
general stampede. Next, after trampling over some hyaena- 
skins which were drying in the sun, it took it into its head 
to charge me or my tent, but got entangled in the tent- 
ropes just when I was about to put a *450 solid into its 
head. We eventually secured it and tethered it to a tree. 
That night the lion passed one of my zarebas, and, jump- 
ing into a village, killed an old man and dragged him out 
into the jungle. I was so bad with fever that I utterly 
refused to follow him, but sent some of my men, who 
followed the track, and found the rem.ains of the man, but 
did not come across the lion. In the afternoon the same 
lion killed a large cow and dragged it close past my tent 
into the thick bush. This I thought might drive my fever 
away, so I started tracking. We soon found the ‘half-eaten 
cow hidden in a frightful maze of thorn-bush. I crept in 
