TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 21 7 
grew too fierce to let us proceed. We did a few more 
miles in the evening. Every hour we were not on 
trek we spent in exhausted sleep. Even as we marched 
I was often in a condition of somnolence that pre- 
vented my guiding the pony in the least. 
We passed a fine range of mountains, said to be 
alive with leopards. We saw the tracks of several, 
but time did not permit of a stalk. However, one 
came to stalk us, very thoughtfully, and saved us a 
lot of trouble. We made the round of the camp that 
night very late before turning in to see that all was 
extra safe. The camels were lying in rows, some with 
heads outstretched, flat, snake-like, on the sand, 
asleep, others chewing the cud, watching us lazily with 
keen bright eyes threading our way among the debris 
of the stores. Our candle lamps were hardly needed 
here, the bright fires lighted us to bed, and we had 
but just settled down when the most prodigious 
shouting and banging of tin pans together roused us 
up again. Then two shots reverberated on the night. 
By the time I was sufficiently clad to emerge with 
propriety the camp was more or less calm again, save 
for a few men jabbering in excited groups. The ponies 
stood in a bunch, and one or two of the camels had 
risen. A leopard had jumped the zareba, but was 
immediately turned by having a piece of lighted 
brushwood thrust in his face. One of the hunters had 
fired after the retreating animal, and claimed to have 
hit it. As no man of the black persuasion cares to go 
outside a zareba at night, all investigations had to be 
put off until day-break, when, without waiting for 
