72 TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 
I sat down, and but for the presence of my shikari 
I am sure I should have cried. 
Game was now most plentiful, gereniik, oryx, and 
aoul being more often in sight than not. Thunder- 
storms became more frequent, and rain more insistent. 
Since leaving the place where we sojourned so long we 
had not known one day in which rain did not fall some 
time during the twenty-four hours. We had managed 
fairly well by going out “ between whiles, 95 but now 
there weren’t any, and there came a time of no half- 
measures. Steady downpours bothered us no end. 
I am very used to water, because my habitat in England 
is in that delectable spot where of all other places 
nobody dreams of going out minus an umbrella. And 
I have seen rain in many corners of the world, but 
never rain like the Somali variety. It is for all the 
world like holding on to the string of a shower bath— 
it pours and pours. Of course whilst the rain is on 
there is no use in endeavouring to spoor, for all traces 
of game are simply wiped out by the floods of water 
as a sponge cleans a slate. We could do nothing save 
remain in our soaked tents and fume. Things were 
very bad and uncomfortable at this time. For a whole 
week we never knew what it was to be dry. Every 
mortal thing we had was drenched, and the poor tents 
were no more use than brown paper in face of the 
continued avalanches of water. We used to wring 
our blankets each night, and but for copious doses of 
quinine I don’t know how I should have pulled through. 
Cecily pinned her faith on weak whisky-and-water, of 
which latter commodity there was now no scarcity, 
