X 
JOURNEY TO WEB BE SHABELEH RIVER 
259 
and surly, as they had had some disagreement with Prince 
Ruspoli’s caravan which passed through before me. As we 
marched in the afternoon I left Hadji Adan with four men, and 
three camels loaded with water-casks, to follow us with a good 
supply of water. We had only gone a mile when we heard 
several shots fired in quick succession, and running back to the 
wells, found my men in sole possession. The natives had 
refused to allow them to take water, and my men, instead of 
returning and complaining to me, had fired a few shots over the 
heads of the crowd, sending them flying, with a worse impression 
of European caravans than they had before. I was naturally angry 
and disgusted with Hadji Adan, who looked sheepish when I told 
him what I thought of him. On this march I fired three shots with 
my Lee-Metford rifle at a beisa bull galloping away. When he was 
already three hundred yards distant my third shot brought him 
down, and we camped by the body to take advantage of the meat. 
Next day we made two hard marches to Daba-Jerissa, where I 
remained on 1 st October, shooting a lesser koodoo buck. The people 
at Daba-Jerissa asked me to give judgment as to the amount of 
blood-money to be paid by another tribe for the murder of one of 
their number ; but I said I would only arbitrate if both parties 
would appeal to me as a disinterested stranger, and that I could not 
undertake to act for the British Government, especially so far 
from Berbera. 
On 2nd October we made two long marches to the wells 
at Sassamani, where guinea-fowl swarmed in tens of thousands, 
blackening the river-bed as they came to drink in the evenings ; 
and I had good sport with the gun. On the way I attacked 
a herd of Soemmerring’s gazelles with the Lee-Metford, and 
dropped four bucks with six shots, at ranges between two 
hundred and fifty and three hundred yards. I gave most of the 
meat to some people whom we found at the wells, instead of a 
present of cloth they asked for. 
On 5th October we arrived at the Gag4b wells at Milmil. 
Here I arranged a division of the caravan into two parts, send- 
ing one to Berbera by the shortest route, so that the men might 
be paid off and the camels sold ; while I kept the other to 
accompany me in a leisurely journey to the coast by way of the 
Eidegalla Hand, where I hoped to get lions. We left Milmil on 
the 6th of October and marched to a Rer Ali karia, and on the 
following day made two marches to a large water-pan at Awdre. 
As no rain had fallen for months in this locality till quite 
