138 TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 
different. The hyaena has a triangle-shaped back pad, 
with two large side toes and two smaller centre ones, 
whilst the pug of the leopard is similar to that of lion 
but proportionately smaller. In spite of these mistakes 
on the part of some unlettered Somali, almost every 
black man spoors in a way no white man ever can hope 
to do. The former can follow tracks of game over 
ground that tells us nothing. Stony ground, wet 
ground, loose ground, dry ground, all alike give up 
secrets to him whereof we cannot hear the faintest 
whispers. The whole jungle is an open book to the 
black shikari, and compared to him the cleverest 
chiel among us is but a tyro. 
We camped some two miles from the karia , and 
barely arrived when the head-man arrived to say 
“ Salaam.” He brought with him all his sisters and 
his cousins and his aunts. A very plain lot they 
looked too, although Clarence whispered to me that in 
Somaliland one of the women was rated as a great 
beauty. I don’t know how he knew, unless the local 
M. A. P. said so. After a closer inspection of the 
lady I came to the conclusion that, for a beauty, she 
really was not bad looking. 
They were very prying though, and really dangerous 
to have round, as one could not be everywhere at once. 
They all had advanced kleptomania. My tent was 
overflowing with them, though I had given orders to 
keep the place clear, and somebody annexed my 
sponge, hair-brush, and even a tooth-brush vanished 
from Cecily’s tent, though we never saw any one pene- 
trate it. I don’t know what use the tooth-brush would 
