i6o TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 
placed hors de combat and unloaded, thus disorganising 
everything. We can take the average load at 250 
pounds, though it frequently exceeds this, because 
naturally loads vary with the nature of the things to 
be carried, bulky or compact, easy or difficult. On 
being required to walk, one sick animal refused to 
budge another inch. It is very hard to judge the 
extent of the illness of a camel. They do not act any 
differently, ill or well, as far as my small experience 
goes. Clarence and the head camel-man made certain 
that the creature was sick unto death, and finally it had 
to be shot. It would not walk, we could not tow it, 
and humanity forbade our leaving it to fend for itself. 
All the camels were bothered no end by a small fly, a 
species of gad-fly, I think, not very large, but most 
mischievous. 
One or two of the animals were so overcome with 
the attentions of these pests of insects they took to 
rolling, which, all encumbered as the camels were, 
could not but be exceedingly detrimental to the load. 
These troubles continued for some days, and the 
camel we lost may have been too badly bitten to go 
on. This fly is a cause of great loss to the Somali 
herds. Another joined the attack, a fearsome creature 
too — much larger again — and he seemed to prefer 
people to camels. We, Cecily and myself, kept him 
off by bathing the exposed parts of our skin in solution 
of carbolic, and this seemed to him anathema , and was 
to us a god-send. We only wished we had sufficient 
to tub all the camels. I think our precautions against 
these annoying flies helped to keep off the fearful 
