56 
THROUGH SOMALILAND AND ABYSSINIA chap. 
feet long and fairly thick ; the other had lost a foot from the 
point, possibly broken off while uprooting a tree. He was a 
fine fellow, and when we brought a tape later on, we found he 
measured ten feet six inches perpendicular height at the shoulder. 
The camel coming up, we got down axes and at once set 
to work to cut out the ivory. I found the Som&lis very feeble 
at this work, as it was sunset by the time they had removed 
one tusk, and they seemed thoroughly exhausted. Then a 
heavy rainstorm burst over us, and when it had stopped the 
setting sun left us wet through, shivering under a thorn-bush, 
the river valley turned temporarily into an immense marsh, 
and, worst of all, no moon. We had seen many fresh lion 
tracks in the river-bed during our hunt, which fact did not tend 
to improve the outlook, and my five men declared themselves 
too exhausted to collect dry firewood, and lay like logs, looking 
the picture of misery. 
After ten minutes wasted in trying to coax them to help 
me, during which I was only answered by grunts, I tried the 
effect of storming at them, and seeing I was annoyed and fear- 
ing for their precious salaries, they sulkily began to look about 
for scraps of bark which might have escaped the general wetting. 
They considered a fire unnecessary, saying that Allah would keep 
the lions away, and that they were too wet and miserable 
to care whether they were eaten up or not. Not being bad 
fellows, however, they afterwards began to warm to their work, 
and collected a goodly pile, and digging out a box of matches 
from my bag, we soon had a cheerful blaze, and made a thorn 
zerfba round our bivouac. The place now looked fairly com- 
fortable, with our clothes hanging upon the surrounding branches. 
The Somalis were before long snoring under some of my 
blankets which I had to lend them, but I had no intention of 
going supperless to bed, and sat up for two hours longer, cook- 
ing a formidable dish of soup and a pot of cocoa, and on the 
whole thoroughly enjoying myself, with the tusk of my first bull 
elephant lying on the grass before me. The consequence was 
that when we were roused up next morning by the sun shining 
into our eyes, I felt quite fresh, while my companions did 
nothing but grunt and shiver under the blankets. By noon we 
had cut out the other tusk, and packing everything on the 
camel, we set out to march three miles down the river to 
Hembeweina. 
During our short march we saw lesser koodoo, beisa, and 
