300 
THROUGH SOMALILAND AND ABYSSINIA chap. 
and brought to bay ; twice I have seen a wounded one make a 
determined charge into a mob of Somalis armed with spears. 
The Midgans, who are armed with bows and poisoned 
arrows, hunt the beisa with packs of savage yellow pariah dogs ; 
the thick skin round the withers of a bull is made by them into 
a white gdshan or fighting shield. The method of hunting, as 
carried out by the Midg&ns in the Bulhar Plain, is as follows : 
Three or four of them, with about fifteen dogs, go out just be- 
fore dawn, and walk along silently through the scattered thorn- 
trees till fresh tracks are found, which are followed till the 
game is sighted. By throwing stones, whistling, and other signs 
which they understand, the dogs are showm the herd, and settle 
down to their work. The dogs run mute, the men following 
at a crouching trot, which in a Somali is untiring ; and this 
lasts until the dogs open in chorus, having brought the game 
to bay. The beisa make repeated charges at the dogs, which 
they often wound or kill. If the latter can avoid the sharp 
horns of the mother, they fasten on to a calf, and sometimes 
the whole herd will charge to the rescue. The Midgans run 
up silently under cover of the bushes and let off a flight of 
poisoned arrows into the herd, which, seeing the human enemy, 
take to flight. Frequently an animal wounded by a poisoned 
arrow takes a line of its own, and is in due time carefully 
followed up and found dead, or it may be pulled down in its 
weak state by the dogs. 
It was many years ago, while wandering with my hunter, 
Ali Hirsi, in the Bulhar Plain, that I first saw the trojfliies of a 
bull beisa, and at once resolved that I would hunt nothing else 
till I had brought down a specimen of this beautiful antelope. 
As we were walking through a thick part of the bush we 
suddenly came upon a group of four Midgans engaged in light- 
ing a fire under a large gudd thorn-tree. Besting against 
the trunk was the head of a freshly-killed beisa bull, with a 
grand pair of horns, starting in continuation with the forehead 
and sweeping back in a slight curve to a length of thirty-four 
inches. On the branches strips of beisa meat were hanging, 
and on the ground lay the rest of the carcase and the skin, 
which a man was cleaning with a knife. Bound the tree nine 
pariah dogs lay about ; they were gnawing offal, and got up 
lazily, as I approached, to show their teeth and growl, till 
kicked into silence by one of the Midgans. The group was a 
striking one, and although I have since, while feeding my 
