200 
SOMALILAND 
such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat . . . 
before I die.’ I don’t know what happened after this until 
I found myself in bed in my tent, when my boy remarked, 
‘ At last you wake up, when alsame dead.’ I drank some 
soup, dosed myself with quinine, and made myself dead 
drunk with champagne. 
On waking next morning, I found, much to my surprise, 
that my quinsy was better, and, lo and behold ! my fever 
had vanished entirely. I could eat ; in fact, I felt a 
different person. I began once more to look about me 
with interest, and to examine the two new dik-dik skulls 
and skins my shikari had shot for me. I remained in bed 
all day, and although very weak ate ravenously. Luckily 
it was a comparatively cool day. 
In the evening a caravan arrived, and begged and prayed 
me to wait another day, as they wished for the protection 
of my armed escort to pass through a hostile tribe. When 
I consented, they all came and clasped my hand, touched 
their foreheads, and said, ‘ Salaam, sahib, salaam.” I spent 
a sleepless night, tormented by thousands of mosquitoes 
(the first I had met with since leaving Berbera), the cries 
of dozens of hysenas, which howled quite close round the 
camp, and the chattering and croaking of guinea-fowls, 
crickets and lizards. I rested long in bed, still feeling very 
weak, but was at length aroused by shouts outside the 
zareba, followed by a bustle on the part of my men in camp. 
Peeping through the window of my tent, I saw my men 
buckling on their cartridge-belts, seizing their rifles, and 
rushing out of the zareba. I blew my whistle and inquired, 
‘ War wassidy ?’ (What’s up ?) My boy replied, ' Somali 
only tarking (talking) bunterbust (business).’ Something 
more exciting than ‘bunterbust,’ I thought to myself, as I 
fell back again in bed, and went fast asleep. 
I did not wake again till the sun’s rays forced me out of 
bed. A large crowd of men instantly surrounded me. 
I was given a long account of how one of my men had 
attempted to get water at the well, but a young man had 
