CHAPTER IV 
WE MEET KING LEO 
My hour is almost come 
Hamlet 
A lion among ladies is a most dreadful thing, for there is not 
a more fearful wild fowl than your lion living 
Midsummer Night’s Dream 
Very shortly after this we came to a Somali karia , or 
encampment. Its inhabitants were a nomadic crowd, 
and very friendly, rather too much so, and I had to 
order Clarence to set a guard over all our things. 
Their own tents were poor, made of camel mats 
that had seen better days. The Somali women were 
immensely taken with our fair hair, and still more with 
our hair-pins. Contrary to the accepted custom of 
lady travellers, we did not suffer the discomfort of 
wearing our hair in a plait down our backs. We 
“ did ” our hair — mysterious rite — as usual. By the 
time I had finished my call at the camp my golden hair 
was hanging down my back. I had given every single 
hair-pin to the Somali ladies, who received them with 
as much delight as we should a diamond tiara. 
Married women in Somaliland wear their hair 
encased in a bag arrangement. Girls plait theirs. 
The little ones’ heads are shaven, and so, apparently, 
were the scalps of the very old men. Clarence’s hair 
