VII 
JOURNEY TO WEBBE SHABELEH RIVER 
189 
the other ; hut although he had been twice hit I lost him, after 
another half-mile, in some high durr grass. Returning to the 
big cow, I found her still unconscious, but gently breathing, 
lying on her side, and finished her with a shot through the head. 
The young bull, I think, must have eventually recovered, as the 
two wounds in the head, having missed the brain, would not 
have injured him mortally. Leaving the men to prepare the 
heads and shields for conveyance to camp, I walked to the 
deserted zerfba and found the camp pitched inside, and dinner 
ready ; two hours later, at sunset, the trophies came in, Daura 
chanting a hunting song. 
We spent the morning of the 9th preparing the trophies, and 
in the evening marched back to Tuli. I shot beisa with good 
horns, and a walleri buck, and next day we made another 
march of ten miles. 
We reached the grazing grounds of the Sheikh Ash Ogaden, 
a friendly set of people, whom I had met before. The men, 
wdio were wdth the camels grazing in the outer pastures, ran 
away on first seeing us, mistaking my men, who carried Snider 
rifles, for Abyssinian raiders. But soon they rushed back, 
shouting and crowding round my riding camel, and raising 
scores of hands for me to shake. 
Getting into the thick of the tribe later on, we camped 
among their karias, beside a tall red ant-hill ; and while camp 
was being pitched, wishing to draw off the crow 7 ds of people 
from worrying my men at their work, I withdrew to a distance 
of a couple of hundred yards and, under the shade of an Adad 
thorn-tree, exhibited coloured prints from the Grajohic Christmas 
numbers, and a book representing the different varieties of 
British soldier. The men, women, and children pressed round 
me in a dense mass, remarking, “ You are not like the Amhara ; 
we are not afraid of you ; you don’t mean any harm.” They 
were particularly delighted with some old Zoological Society’s 
Proceedings which contained coloured illustrations of a Waller’s 
gazelle and a Somali wild ass; and they said, “Now we have 
seen that the English can do everything ” ! 
I had a serious difficulty here. One of the Bulhar men, 
having quarrelled with Adan Yusuf, my caravan leader, decided 
to leave me ; and as is the custom, seven more coast men, 
drawn from the same tribe, although bearing no malice, joined 
their fellow-tribesman as a matter of principle. I called for 
volunteers from the Sheikh Ash tribe ; and about twenty at 
