98 
THROUGH SOMALILAND AND ABYSSINIA chap. 
Early next morning we had to witness a great equestrian 
display by the Ker Dollol and Yunis Jibril horsemen, given in 
our honour. After the dibaltig they told us there had been 
fighting at some wells near us the day before, the Gadabursi 
having attacked them from the west, killing one man and 
wounding another ; and also that an elephant had been killed, 
not far away, by Midg&ns, with poisoned arrows. 
We had promised the Jibril Abokr that we would wait at 
Ujawdji to hear further news of the Abyssinians, and to record 
the complaints of the elders, for submission to Government ; 
meanwhile, having been told by the horsemen in the morning 
that lions were numerous in the Jifa bush, we resolved to go and 
look for them there, taking with us the camp. The Jibril Abokr 
lent us horsemen to help us search for lion-tracks, and we started 
ahead of the caravan, sitting on camels led by gun-bearers. 
We got away from camp late in the morning, and besides the 
men we had engaged, we were followed by a crowd of horsemen, 
anxious to witness our shooting, and to come in for a share of 
any venison we might obtain on the plains between Ujaw&ji and 
Jifa. Soon we found ourselves in the open, masses of game 
giving way before us as we advanced. The size of the party 
prevented our coming within close range, but we wounded a bull 
hartebeest, and E , mounting one of the Somali ponies, gave 
chase, with a hog-spear in his hand. The hartebeest is known to 
be the most enduring of the antelopes, having a long and un- 
tiring stride, and though E circled round the horizon, 
followed by two horsemen, at a great pace, it gradually increased 
its distance, and finally disappeared into one of the wave-like 
dips of the ground. 
Presently a party of horsemen appeared galloping towards us, 
nowand then hidden by the rolling ground, and arriving in front 
of our party they circled their ponies, and giving the com- 
plimentary “Mot!” came up and shook hands. They informed 
us that they had marked down three lions in the grass, on the 
plain, eight miles away in the Jifa direction ; and assured us the 
lions would be found in the same place, as six horsemen had been 
placed to form a cordon round them, and they would be afraid to 
move from the shelter of a patch of rather high grass. The men 
said that these lions must have been living within the edge of the 
Jifa bush, prowling out on the great plains at night in order to 
stalk the herds of antelopes, and that they must have killed some- 
thing the night before, and being gorged and lazy, the break of 
