The Elbert County tribune., 1909-05-13

In aQdltlOn 10 Otn-
srs, 1 have always had one man, Abb
duf1a Ashar, as head shikari. Besides
being an agreeable companion, he is
far aad away the best finder of game
have ever seen in the country.
His pluck is undeniable, and the
only Aficulty have had with
him is to prevent hip going
where 1 did not care to go myself.
This may sound exaggerated praise of
native. but among other things he
SraDDled lion which had knocked me
down, being severely mauled before
he got the brute off, SO that I natur-
ally entertain very high opinion of
him. Owing to his skill in tracking
4 have only lost one wounded lion out
of many that were hit, and that was
not his fault. as the blood stopped al
most directly and the ground was
nothing but stones for miles. This
speaks for itself, as any one who has
shot Hons knows how difficult it is to
zecover wounded beast without dogs.
only once had the help of dogs
efter wounded lions. We were camped
Gown in the Haud among the Eidegall
villages under Sultan Deria. One day
for the natives, accompanied by a war
\ FLOR called Hassan and his pony.
had just shot an oryx, and we were
cutting 1t up, when the smallest So
mali l have ever seen came running
up to say he had just observed FIVE
lions asleep under tree close by.
This man belonged to the low-caste
tribe of Midgans-people who do not
Live together in one tribe, but are
scattered all over Somaliland In differ
ent villages, where they are chiefly
engaged in killing antelope for meat,
other Somalis, as a rule, thinking 1t
below their dignity to do anything but
60 out occasionally on looting expedi-
tons. Midgans are armed with bows
and poisoned arrows, and each of
them carries a knife. Until quite
lately no other Somali would use a
bow. but now 1t is quite a common
thing to meet a native belonging to
another tribe who has discarded his
spears for a bow and CULVER of
poisoned arrows.
Shooting Lions with Poisoned
Arrows.
LIONS are occasionally killed by
Aidgans. but the poison on the arrows
cannot be very strong, as frequently,
after being sick two or three times,
the Hon seems to recover and get
away. Captain Swayne gives an ac-
count Of the way In which these Mid
sans hunt the oryx with their dogs.
But to get on with my story The
little Midgan carried a bow nearly as
long as himself, and was followed by
about dozen small native dogs with
curly sterns and prick ears. These
tttie ours were wonderfully broken
The man trotted of in front OF us,
and when he got near the place where
he had seen the lions he simply put
out his hand, and all the dogs lay
down in bunch and never attempted
to follow on after us. Then we stalked
carefully towards big thorn tree ris-
ing above the bush. This was where
the lions were said to be. The bush
was very open, and when we came in
sight of the tree the lions were Just
dsoamping. There we're four of them,
not five-an old lioness and three
Hons. perhaps not quite full grown,
and with very little name. Hassan
had followed close behind on his pony,
% shouted to him to try and keep
bis eye on the lioness, and ran on my
self with Abdulla after one of the
lions. This one did not seem much
inclined to run. and after a short
burst I managed to get bullet into
him somewhere Just as he disappeared
into some thick bushes.
At that moment we caught sight Of
another Hon trotting along parallel to
~ about 200 yards OF. The wounded
one was keeping up continuous low
growing in the bushes. SO. thinking
he would not get far away, we ran to
out on the other. He turned cn when
ne caught sight Of us. and we had .
long. stern chase after him, as . 70
sult OF which was SO blown I could
unf hit him. although he WAS lobbfug