TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 
190 
nice to do a long forced march and put some miles 
between our two encampments. Somehow, we couldn't 
fraternise. And that beautiful sentence, without which 
no suburban friendship is ever cemented — “ Now 
you’ve found your way here you must be sure to come 
again ” — was quite useless to be spoken. In Suburbia 
that formula is a solemn rite, never disregarded in the 
formation of a friendship. You might as well forget 
to ask “ Is your tea agreeable ? ” at an “ At Home ” 
day. But in Somaliland you had friendship offered 
so differently, if indeed it was offered at all. It came 
in the guise of a dirty ham of camel’s milk, microbial 
and miasmatic, or in the person of a warlike goat, 
who with no mauvaise-honte is willing to take the 
whole caravan to his horns, or in cases of overwhelm- 
ing friendliness a sheep may be presented, with no 
thought of return. We were rarely privileged to reach 
this giddy height — too stand-offish, I conclude. 
We did a stalk about this time that amused us very 
much. We went out alone on our ponies, and came 
on a couple of oryx in a plot of country interspersed 
with light cover of mimosa and thorn bushes, who 
winded us and were off immediately. They did not 
run very far, but inquisitively turned to stare back, 
standing close together. They were considerably out 
of range. We separated, and Cecily rode off, so that 
finally we two and the oryx formed the points of a 
triangle. A nomadic Somali came riding up, the 
wind blowing away from him screened his approach, 
but presently the oryx caught sight of this new ap- 
parition and back my way they raced. As they came 
