THE ROOSEVELT HUNT. 
7 
BRAVEST NATIVE HUNTERS OF AFRICA. 
From all accounts, there is a very good reason—in fact, many good rea¬ 
sons—why the Somali helpers, or shikaris, command the highest pay of all 
the native hunters of Africa. They are scrupulously clean and, like all Mo¬ 
hammedans, absolutely temperate. Fatalists in religion, they have no fear of 
death. If they are to die. by the terrible jaws or paws of a lion—they die; 
that is all there is to it. With their light complexions, wavy hair, tall, slender 
and wiry bodies, they are largely Arabian, both in appearance and in fact. 
As proclaimed by one who has cause to stand by his words, '‘Nothing con¬ 
nected with East African lion shooting is more heroic than the conduct of the 
Somali shikaris. No Sahib who treats them half decently is likely to find 
cause to complain of their fidelity. When peril threatens, they are as ready to 
die for him as most others are ready to desert.” Countless stories are told 
illustrative of their intrepidity.' For instance, the fresh tracks of a lion lead 
to the mouth of a dark cave, high enough only to admit the two Somalis who, 
without a moment’s pause, start for the opening, one armed with a rifle and 
the other with only his skinning knife. The white Sahib shouts a protest and 
a warning, at which one of them answers cheerily, without a tremor in his 
voice, “Inshallah [God willing] we come back.” They then enter the cave 
and even toss stones into its darkness, inviting in every way, a charge of the 
terrible king of beasts. Again, a wounded lion charges a white hunter and 
his Somali gun bearer. As the beast crushes the former to the ground, the 
rifle, which had previously been broken and imperfectly repaired, falls apart. 
Being unable to fire it to advantage, the Sahib rams the gun barrel down the 
wounded lion’s throat. As the two lay struggling on the ground—the beast 
commencing to maul the hunter most fearfully—the Somali circles around 
endeavoring to find an opening to dispatch the lion with the rifle in his posses¬ 
sion. After several vain attempts, the native drops the gun and springs upon 
the back of the infuriated beast, biting its ears -and pounding its eyes with 
such ferocity that it turns upon him and all three fall to the earth together— 
the Somali beneath the lion and the effective rifle under both. This diversion 
gives the Sahib an opportunity to arise, pull the weapon free and blow out the 
lion’s brains, thus saving his faithful and brave follower from the death 
which he invited in order to rescue his chief. The air of the hunting grounds 
in British East Africa is full of such stories, and it is therefore quite natural 
that the true white sportsman is perfectly willing to pay the high wages so 
