330 THROUGH SOMALILAND AND ABYSSINIA 
distinctly organised caravans was recognised at once, and we held to this 
system throughout, the result being that even our servants and camelmen 
pulled well together, and we had no difficulties. 
It is convenient in safe country, when an increase of sport can be 
obtained thereby, for the different Europeans to separate. Thus A hears 
of a lion two days’ march away ; B goes three days’ march in the opposite 
direction to search a valley believed to contain elephants ; C forms a 
camp in the hills twenty miles away for a week’s koodoo-shooting. In 
unsafe country, or where there is sport for all at one spot, the camps may 
be reunited, the dinners clubbed together, the tents pitched side by side, 
and the camels joined into one herd. But the distinct organisation of 
each caravan should be preserved, under the command of its own white 
leader, assisted by his Somali headman. In this way only, with the 
maximum of supervision, aided by a feeling of esprit de corps between the 
different caravans, can the maximum of work be got out of Somalis. 
I am against taking servants from India. They require a great deal 
of water, and are at enmity with their surroundings in a country where 
there are practically no villages or bazaars, and where they are almost 
“put to Coventry” bv the natives. Somalis think them effeminate, 
saying they may be men in the town, but that they become women in 
the bush, especially in the waterless Haud ! In our Dolbahanta journey 
the women ran after my Madras cook, who was dressed in flowing white 
with a large turban, and asked him whose wife he was ! Sometimes when 
my brother was out of camp, the Somali members of the expedition used 
to throw stones at his Punjabi “bearer,” and although a fine fellow in 
his own country, among the strange surroundings he used to break down 
and ask to be sent to the coast. It is not necessary to take Indians ; for 
Somalis, though often rather rough as servants in a civilised household, 
pick up their duties quickly, and are good enough for the jungle. 
In fitting out a caravan, the chief factors governing the calculation 
are : — 
(1) What is the minimum number of armed men that should be taken 
into the district to be visited. 
(2) Whether or not the district is waterless. 
(3) The duration of the trip. 
As regards the first consideration, I will mention different districts, 
and state what escort I should take into each, assuming political con- 
ditions to be as favourable as they were in 1893. Local disturbances of 
course arise, but on the whole the country is becoming safer every year 
for Europeans. My estimate may soon be out of date ; and the political 
authorities in Aden, who are in touch with events in Somaliland, must be 
consulted as to the strength of the escort. Permission must be obtained 
from the same authorities to enter Northern Somaliland at all. And 
certain rules have been framed for sportsmen. 
At ordinary times I should ride about alone, though of course armed, 
within the area contained by lines joining Berbera, Wagar, Hargeisa, and 
Elmas Mountain ; and in this area the natives may often be seen unarmed. 
As a matter of fact a sportsman should always have a few Somalis in 
attendance, either armed with his spare sporting rifles or with their own 
spears. A European who went unarmed about the country would excite 
the universal derision of the natives, for it is their own fashion to go armed. 
Outside this area, in the explored parts of the British Protectorate, 
