TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 
302 
been so personal myself. The Arab did not seem to think 
any worse of my kinsman for it, and the camels changed 
hands at the much improved price of 35 Rs. apiece. 
The ponies were practically given away, and I had no 
end of a difficulty to unearth a philanthropist willing 
to board and lodge “ Sceptre.” We only just got rid 
of our camels in time ! That very evening the sports- 
man arrived in Berbera whom we had left cogitating 
at Aden. His wife was going stronger than ever, and 
her temper was, if possible, worse. He had not lost 
her. What a wasted opportunity ! Their caravan 
had taken a completely different route to ours, having 
been to the Boorgha country and round by the Bun 
Feroli. Their trophies were very fine and numerous, 
and the kindly old shikari showed them to us with 
great pleasure and pride. He managed to be a sports- 
man in spite of Madam, not, I am sure, by her aid. 
She was a Woman ’ s- Right er , and like Sally Brass, a 
regular one-er. Regardless of the plain fact that we 
must all be hopelessly ignorant of home affairs, she 
worried our lives out of an evening to discover our 
trivial, worthless opinions on all sorts of political 
questions. It was very amusing to hear Cecily artfully 
trying to conceal her dense ignorance ; we listened to 
them one night after dinner, and Madam, who probably 
knew as little of the subject as her victim, desired to 
know what Cecily thought of Mr. Chamberlain’s 
fiscal policy. My cousin did not enlarge, so that her 
lack of knowledge was overwhelmingly apparent. She 
shook her head solemnly, and said darkly, with grave 
emphasis, “ What, indeed ! ” 
