A PRISONER IN CAMP 
219 
ears of the antelopes were literally torn to shreds. I had a 
most enjoyable swim in the cold water. It was the first 
really clean-water bath I had enjoyed since leaving 
Berbera. 
Whilst I was dressing next morning in my tent, my 
headman rushed in shouting, ' Bundook, sahib, quick !' 
Seizing my Mannlicher and dashing out, I beheld between 
sixty and seventy wild dogs quietly making off on the 
opposite side of the lake. I followed them into the bushes, 
but owing to the stony nature of the ground it was utterly 
impossible to track them, and I looked for them in vain. I 
was much disappointed, having always wished to collect a 
specimen of this comparatively rare animal. 
During the morning a prisoner was brought into camp. 
He had stalked one of my men at the well, and was on the 
point of stabbing him from behind with his spear, when 
another of my men, seeing him, knocked him head over 
heels, took his spears and shield, and brought him into 
camp. We tied his arms behind his back and attached him 
to a tree. All my men wanted me to shoot him, but I 
laughed at them, telling them I had come here to shoot 
elephants, not men. This man of the tribe of the Goom Adla 
was only acting after the manner of his tribe, trying to 
kill a man in order that he might be able to wear an 
ostrich feather in his hair, and then marry. We kept him 
in camp the whole day and night, in spite of his friends’ 
prayers that he might be given up. But I was determined 
to frighten them, and stop this dangerous game of theirs 
once and for all. I told them to fetch all their headmen 
to apologize for him, and told them I was going to take 
him to Berbera to be judged. This produced a great 
impression upon his friends, who at once sent off to his 
village for the headmen, and then started one of their 
dances, which was even more abandoned than those of the 
people at Gerigeree. 
Next day about 100 men turned up at the well, deter- 
mined to rescue the prisoner if possible. When they 
