TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 109 
To return to the subject in hand again. Just imagine 
a well-looked-after camel-man deliberately going and 
making a meal of doubtful meat just because it was 
forbidden him. Ah, well ! is it not said that “ the 
dearest pleasure of the delicately nurtured is a furtive 
meal of tripe and onions ” ? Perhaps our follower took 
the beef as a surreptitious dish of that kind. The 
analogy may seem a little “ out,” but it is there if you 
look for it. 
One day, somewhere about this time, I was fortunate 
enough to witness a great and splendid sight, a battle 
to the death between two bull oryx. I had been 
lunching on sandwiches of their kind — alas ! their 
poor brother ! — and was resting awhile on the verge of 
a thick bit of country, a natural clearing with thick 
thorn cover around. I kept very silent — I was in fact 
very sleepy — when I heard the war challenge of some 
genus buck, imperious and ringing, and not far away. 
It was replied to instantly. Again it sounded louder 
and nearer. I raised myself and looked about. From 
out the dense brushwood, but a few hundred yards away, 
and from opposite sides, sprang a fine up-standing 
oryx. Crash ! And the great bulls were at each other. 
Clawing with hoofs and teeth and rapier horns. Then 
backwards they would sidle, and each taking a flying 
start would come together with a sickening crash, and 
all the while each tried every possible tactic to drive 
the merciless horns home. I held my breath with 
excitement, as in theirs I was permitted to creep almost 
up to the panting, foam-flecked warriors. I could have 
shot both, but as I was strong so was I merciful. It 
