TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 263 
must be reached at the earliest possible moment. 
Clarence had reported that the supply was dangerously 
low. We traversed very ugly country, sand and 
sand, with a few low scrub bushes dotted about — a 
dispiriting vista enough. We shot a dik-dik for 
dinner, and so fared sumptuously. There is about as 
much meat on the body of this tiny buck as one gets 
on an English hare. 
At last we came to the wells. We found a number 
of Somalis making a spa out of the place, and selling 
the water, drop by drop. I don’t know if the wells 
were some one’s birthright, or if some speculative 
Somali jumped the claim, but a repellent old gentleman, 
who looked as though he had not tried the precious 
liquid on himself for some years, gave us to under- 
stand he owned the place. He asked such wealth for 
a mere dole of water we decided to camp and think 
it out. He knew the value of what he had to sell, 
the old sinner, for though we were but a few marches 
now from the end of the Haud our caravan was a good 
size, and its consumption necessarily great. We had 
the tents set up right there, and prepared to improve 
the shining hour by seeking some sport on the Toyo 
Plain. 
I discarded my sling altogether, and we started from 
camp early, reaching the great “ bun ” after a stiffish 
ride. We left the ponies in charge of the hunters 
some way from the fringe of grass, and in a certain 
amount of cover. We stood for quite a long while 
watching the sea of waving green which was not yet 
tall enough to conceal the numerous bands of game 
