202 TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 
Interested, we watched the two cats cantering off, 
shoulder to shoulder, far out into the open country 
beyond our ken. Our men whispered among them- 
selves. We were out with the second hunter, as 
Clarence was occupied in camp. They were puzzled 
evidently. As a result of a long course of noticing 
that to many white shikaris a lion is a lion, and has no 
sex or age, it seemed to the native mind a remarkably 
odd circumstance that we made no effort at all to bag 
two specimens at one fell swoop. I never had any 
scruples about killing hyaenas. They are not to be 
classed as among the more valuable fauna, being so 
numerous and productive, and such low-down sneaking 
creatures, doing such harm among the herds and 
karias , carrying off the children so frequently, and 
always maltreating the face, as if with some evil 
design, voraciously tearing it before it commences on 
any other part. 
We entered a little forest of khansa and adad, 
sombre and dark. But in the great tunnellings it 
was possible to see ahead for a fair distance. We were 
just examining a bit of gum-arabic with faint tracery 
on it when a hunter pulled my sleeve. There, a great 
way off, going with the wind, moving with a rolling 
gait, was a lion ; head carried low as is their wont, and 
going along at a smart pace. Signing to the syce to 
stand there with the ponies, Cecily and I rushed down 
the path the lion had taken. But we never sighted 
him again. The jungle grew thicker, and it was 
getting late, so we were forced to abandon the stalk, 
returning to our distant camp after a blank day. 
