TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 151 
ground cut through, which is in most parts of red 
earth. There are always steps cut all the way down, 
on which the Somalis balance themselves with the 
greatest sang-froid , doing the necessary conjuring trick 
with the buckets from hand to hand the while. They 
are made from the ubiquitous leather — in no country, 
I imagine, can leather be more pressed into service — 
and a number of Somalis often descend a deep well at 
one time, passing up the full buckets in continuous 
chain, receiving back the returning empty ones as the 
other leaves the hand. All the time the ever helpful 
songs are sung. 
When a large number of camels have to be watered 
it means spending the best part of a day down the 
wells, which are often very foul, and full of noxious 
gases. Troughs for the cattle are made by the wells as 
a rule, again of the ever helpful leather, or hollowed 
by hand, and lined with some sort of clay. We used 
the ordinary English method, much simpler, of pro- 
curing water, and a bucket and rope seemed to be as 
effectual and as expeditious, with certainly less waste 
than the Somali system. 
We had hoped to have a splendid bath at Galadi, 
and a real good drink, but on trying well after well 
we found the water absolutely poisonous, and highly 
dangerous. The liquid was putrid. The birds of the 
air in their thousands made the place their own, and 
the smell when we disturbed the surface of the wells 
was simply abominable. Our men drank freely, but 
Cecily and I worried along on the short commons of 
our last water barrel. All the animals were watered, 
