TRAPPING AND COLLECTING IN SOMALILAND 271 
6 feet diameter inside, take two of your 4-inch or 6 -inch 
‘ gin ’-traps, and place them in the entrance — neither inside 
nor outside, but in the entrance — of the zareba. Knock a 
strong peg through the iron loop of the trap, and well into 
the ground. Tie a strong rope to the loop, which must be 
secured to a tree -trunk, stump, or thorn-bush which forms 
the zareba. Always tie a rope to the trap, as, if simply 
pegged down, a hyaena will pull it up in no time. Having 
now all in readiness, wait until the sheep and goats, and, 
more important still, the men have returned to their villages, 
and just at sunset sally forth with your reeking sheep s 
entrails, which deposit plump in the middle of your zareba, 
so that an animaFs paw thrust through the zareba cannot 
well reach it, and then proceed to set your trap. 
This latter operation you must do entirely by yourself 
Natives will never take enough trouble to set them properly, 
and nearly always end by trapping themselves. Scrape a 
hollow in the ground, set out the jaws of the trap, and 
place it in the hollow so that the plate of the trap is on a 
level with the surrounding ground. Now sprinkle sand 
over plate, jaws and spring, and the whole is entirely hidden 
from view. Don’t be afraid of putting too much sand on, 
as the animal is sure to spring it if it be a strong, well- 
made trap. When the trap is set in the entrance of the 
zareba, cut some small bushes, and fill up any gap that 
may appear over the spring of the trap, so that the animal 
must walk over the jaws of the trap, and not over the 
spring of the trap. 
Now take a hangol (crooked stick) and restore the ground 
around to its usual appearance. This will efface your foot- 
marks, and help to take away your smell. It is perhaps 
better, for the large animals, to set two traps in the one 
entrance, as the entrance can then be made wider to allow 
them to pass in and prevent them jumping over the fence. 
On the next page is a bird’s-eye view of the zareba, with 
traps set, before the latter are covered over with sand. 
Twisted wire snares must be laid in the runs of the 
