230 
SOMALILAND 
if I would give him the one I had looted in ex- 
change. 
As he seemed to be the most influential man in the place^ 
I consented, taking him and our looted pony with me. 
Before 1 left I tried my level best to engage a guide to 
take me to Wardare, but nobody would come. I gave the 
word to start, and we slowly marched out of a country I 
never wish to set eyes upon again. No one knows how things 
will turn out ! Those three hundred loafers stood still and 
watched their pony taken from them without one moving ! 
We had a very trying march over rough stones, and 
several of the camels fell down. I had a racking headache,, 
and the heat was very great ; but a clouded sky probably 
saved my life that day, for had it been a really piping hot 
sky, I think I must have ' knocked under.’ The old man 
was as good as his word. He showed us the big road 
which led to Wardare, and about four o’clock two men on 
horseback were seen approaching at a gallop a long distance 
off, for we were encamped upon an open, stony plain. 
On their near approach, they pulled up their horses dead, 
and shouted ‘ Mot, mot, mot, io mot.’ One animal was very 
fast and strong-looking, and I chose him at once. He was 
quite frisky, or, as my headman said, ' very hart ’ (hot), 
and two men had to hold him to allow a third to mount. 
We filled up all the hams and barrels at the well close 
by, preparatory to marching across the big waterless desert 
ahead of us, en route to Wardare. There is one occasion, 
and only one, when Somalis are willing and anxious to 
march fast, and that is when no water is to be encountered 
on the way. 
I loaded up at 4 o’clock next morning, shook the dust off 
my feet on this detestable country and its inhospitable 
people, and marched in the pitch darkness through thin 
bush and stony level ground. When the sun rose and the 
chill of morning passed, I rode my new pony, and found he 
went well over the stones. 
There was absolutely no game to be seen, but I shot one 
