The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1909-05-15

dulla Ashur, as head shikari. Besides
being an agreeable companion, he Is
far and away the best finder Of game
have ever seen in the country.
His pluck is undeniable, and the
only difficulty 1 have had with
him is to prevent him going
where did not care to go myself
This may sound exaggerated praise of
. native. but among other things he
grappled lion which had knocked me
down. being severely mauled before
he got the brute of, so that natur-
ally entertain very high opinion of
him. Owing to his skill In tracking
I 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
Aeaks for itself, as any one who has
ot lions knows how difficult it is to
feHover wounded beast without dogs.
Il only once had the help of dogs
after wounded lions. We were camped
down in the Haud among the Eidegall
villages under Sultan Deria. One day
I went out to try to get some meat
rior called Hassan and his pony. I
had just shot an oryx, and We were
cutting 1t up. when the smallest So
mali 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
go out occasionally on looting expedi-
tions Midgans are armed with bows
and poisoned arrows. and each of
them carries a knife. Until quite
lately no other Somali would use
bow. but now 1t is quite a common
thing to meet a native belonging to
another tribe who has discarded his
spears for bow and CULVER of
poisoned arrows.
Shooting Lions with Poisoned
Arrows.
Aidgans. but the poison on the arrows
s1pnot be very strong. as frequently.
er being sick two or three times,
lion seems to recover and get
aN&y. Captain Swayne gives an ac-
count Of the way in which these Mid
gans hunt the oryx with their dogs.
But to get on with my story. The
little Midgan carried bow nearly as
long as himself, and was followed by
about dozen small native dogs with
curly sterns and prick ears. These
little 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 a bunch and never attempted
to follow on after US. Then we stalked
carefully towards a big thorn tree ris-
ing above the bush. This was where
tne lions were said to be. The bush
was very open. and when we came in
sight Of the tree the lions were just
dscamping. There were four of them,
not five-an old lioness and three
lions, perhaps not quite full grown,
and with very little name. Hassan
had followed close behind on his pony.
20 l shouted to. him to try and keep
ais eye on the lioness. and ran on my
sell with Abdulla after one Of the
Mons. This one did not seem much
inclined to run, and after q short
ourst | managed to get bullet into
nim somewhere Just as he disappeared
INTO some thick bushes.
At that moment we caught sight OF
mother lion trotting along parallel to
" about 200 yards OF. The wounded
one was keeping up a continuous low
eroWling in the bushes, 80. thinking
40 would not get far away, We ran to
sut on the other. He turned on when
~ light sight of US. and we had .
stern chase after him, as re-
Nh Of which I was 80 blown I could
aot hit him. although he WAS lobbing