50 
THROUGH SOMA LILA ND AND ABYSS INS A chap. 
walked into the very centre of the herd, and there was now 
no time to be lost in making my choice, because one of them 
might at any moment get down wind of me and sound the alarm. 
The elephants I had seen were standing about forty yards 
away, one being a little apart from the other two, close to a 
tree, and I could see that a pair of tusks protruded from its 
lips. I advanced to within fifteen yards of the foremost one, 
which looked quietly at me for some moments, its trunk feeling 
the wind, as if wondering whether I might or might not be the 
stump of a tree. Raising my rifle I fired at the centre of the 
temple, half-way between the eye and the ear. The smoke 
obscured my view, but the next instant I could hear the jungle 
stirring all round me as the elephants made off. Then every 
living thing seemed to have left the place. As the smoke 
cleared away it disclosed, fifteen yards off, the body of the 
elephant sitting motionless with its knees tucked under its chest, 
a single hole in the temple showing where the bullet had entered. 
This turned out to be the largest cow in the herd, and I after- 
wards found, by a thorough examination of the tracks in the 
neighbourhood, that there was not a single bull. 
Satisfied with my success so far as it went, I did not follow 
the herd, and in answer to my whistle the Midgdns came up, 
astonished to see that a single bullet had done the business. 
The camels were brought up, and we formed our bivouac by 
the dead elephant, and at dusk the tusks lay beside the camp- 
fire. Next day we marched to Sheikh, and found the camp safe, 
and in the evening began our march back to Berbera. 
Two months later I set out again, beginning by a dhow 
voyage of one hundred and fifty miles across the Gulf of Aden. 
I hired four camels and two cam el men at five rupees a day, 
or about £10 for a whole month. 1 I also engaged a caravan 
leader, three servants, two Somdli trackers, and a Midgdn, not 
a large party with which to go into an unknown country. To 
guard against the possible attack by robbers at a time when the 
English even at the coast were very little known, I lent my 
three servants a Snider carbine each. The remainder of the 
men had their spears and shields, and the Midgdn, Adan, carried 
his bow and arrows. My “butler,” Niir Osman, had been a 
1 This was a mistake, as I could then have bought the camels for £8 the lot 
and sold them for £6 at the end of the trip, and on all later trips of any 
duration I have bought instead of hiring. The constant and steady rise in 
the price of camels may, however, in time give hiring the advantage. 
