The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1903-01-10

/ paIIIng howl Of fear, he writhed about
on the sand in an ecstacy of terror. AS
l had seen this man on more than one
/ occasion as ST ady and col as possible
! in very real danger, / thought fol the
moment that he must have very dan
/ gerously injured himself, and that he
knew it. However, on pulling him over
and forcing him to let me examine his
hand, l fouFd only sight cut. and on
/ finding out the extent Of the mischief,
no one laughed longer or louder than
the good, but hysterical Hassan Gun
! gerwein. Ii somai does not get
plenty of work and plenty Of excite
ment he is ubject to fits of moroseness
and brOoding, and being a born con-
spirator, spends his time in childish
grumpiness like very spGilt child.
while his fertile brain matches out a
plan to upset the calm peaCefulness or
the every day life of your camp When
you observe these signs, if you are an
old hand, you know what he is about to
! put you in hole if he can, and that
| the next symptom will be that he VIII
explode in a sudden fit of passion,
probably at feeding time, and as likely
as not will deftly hit his best friend a
humping blow on the head with his
spear, and will not be too particular
whether it is with the sharp edge Or
not
If blood has been split it will take a
good many camels and drinks all round
in the form of the melted fat Of Sleeps
tails Ia great vintage Of the country,
to restore sunshine. Nevertheless
little joke and al little tact will gener-
ally drive the clouds away quickly, and
you will be on better terms with him
than ever; but if you have not that lit
tlen ecessary tact or thta little joke
| handy at the moment, and instead take
things too serius!y, as he wants you to-
trouble may found and grw apace. In
| fact, you have to deal with spoiit
child, and spoilt children do not make
| the best of soldier men without in
finite trouble, and even then you can
not do it in a day unless you are a
Gordon. Another weakness he shares
with many better men, being overload
Of the bright rupee and an unscrupu-
! lous anxiety to get more than he con-
! tractrd to give his valuable services
| for. The tribes vary a good deal, and
the Dolbahanti are said to be very
treacherous, but l have not found the
Babr Gehaji, Ogadens, or Hair Avail
so. On the contrary, they appeared
| good fellows, and easy to get on with
There is no keener sportsman than the
| Somai, but although he takes a Ian
| guild kind of interest in comprising the
! death of any lion (Which has killed too
many of his precious camels) with no
other weapon than his spear and the
assistance of dozen Of his friends
similarly armed, the whole affair rath-
er bores him; but in the execution of
Neutrality-suspicious. plan to lift the cam
els belonging to different village, he
is what a Western cowboy would call a
"russ,er from the word Coz" His
heart is in the sport. No man who has
not discussed the delights of camel
stealing over campfire with a Somali
man can realize the boundiess amuse-
ment to be found in this enhancing
sport. OF course, things go wrong
sometimes, and the subsequent pursuit
I gets too exciting, and hot even for an
enthusiast, but if he and his friends
escape with their lives they will all
patiently wait for better opportunity
and go through endless privations and
hardships to make the next venture a
lucky coup. But in any case, success
full or not the idea OF giving up the
game never enters a Somali's head.
What else would there be for him to
do? To take care of his own camels
and lift other peoples Is his raison
d'etre. Moolahs mad or sane may come
and go, so may the English, the
Italians, or the French, but if they ex-
ist they are only considered as so many
forces which. with the lions, have to
be considered solely in connection with
the great question which every good
Somal is always asking himself. name
| ly: How can l best keep MY own cam
els, and add to them some one else's?
Compared to other native African
races, the Somai is one of the most civ
ilized and intelligent; he is far more
Asiatic than African, and many of
their head men talk English well. and
are quite at home in Aden.-Major
| Christie In ST lanes Gazette