The “Dik-Dik” Antelopes

General native name, Sakáro

These little antelopes weigh less than an English hare, and I think Guyu must be among the smallest of the antelope tribe. In all three the horns are well corrugated at the base, sharply pointed, and from one inch to three inches long. The eyes are enormously large in proportion to the size of the head.

The Gol Ass (i.e. “red belly”) is the ordinary “Dik-Dik,” which is shot all over Guban and Ogo and in parts of the Haud and Ogádén. The Guyu differs from it in being very much smaller, and having the sides of the belly yellowish gray instead of reddish yellow. It appears to be found in the localities frequented by the Gol Ass. In fact both have been shot indiscriminately by sportsmen under the name “Dik-Dik,” which is the term used by Europeans, who often noticed the great variation in the size of adult specimens. My attention was first called to the two native names only at the end of my last expedition, which led to the discovery that they represented distinct varieties.

Madoqua phillipsi. Madoqua swaynei.

“Dik-Dik” Antelopes.

Length of horns, 2½ inches.

I came on Gussuli for the first time about a day’s journey south of Seyyid Mahomed’s village in the Malingúr tribe, and found it to exist all over the Rer Amáden country. Its range coincides nearly with that of the rhinoceros, and it is found, like the latter animal, in parts of the Haud, where its ground overlaps with the range of the Gol Ass. The Gussuli is if anything slightly larger than the Gol Ass, and of a dead gray colour, with a white belly. The female appears to be much larger than the male; and it is a pretty safe rule, when trying to shoot the buck of a pair, to aim at the smaller one.

The Gol Ass and Guyu have short muzzles, while that of the Gussuli is very long, resembling the snout of a tapir. The two former antelopes are found in pairs, seldom more than three being seen together. They give a shrill alarm whistle, uttered two or three times in quick succession, and are often a nuisance, being apt to disturb more valuable game. The Gussuli start up three or four at a time, and sometimes the undergrowth seems to be alive with them. These small antelopes are very easily knocked over with a shot gun and No. 4 shot. They give good sport in the evening, when they are liveliest, especially if followed silently and fired at with a rook rifle, for they give plenty of chances when they stand to look back. The female exposes herself most, and is consequently most often shot.

Dik-Dik and Aloes

Gol Ass (Madoqua phillipsi).

All Sakáro prefer broken ground, where there is good cover of low scrub or aloes, and they are never seen in open grass plains. They lie close like hares, and when disturbed dart out with successive hops, at a great pace. I have often seen about eighty Sakáro in the course of a day’s march. They nibble the young shoots of the low khansa and other bushes; and like to be near water, going to drink at midday and just after nightfall.

Every traveller going to Somáliland has brought back specimens of the little Sakáro antelope, called by Europeans indiscriminately the “Dik-Dik,” but I had noticed that the Somális recognised three kinds—the Guyu, Gol Ass, and Gussuli. After my second Webbe trip I collected specimens which, with those already collected by Mr. Lort Phillips and other sportsmen, enabled Mr. Oldfield Thomas to ascertain that all three were new; and they were then described by him (P. Z. S. April 1894), and called respectively Madoqua swaynei, Madoqua phillipsi, and Madoqua guentheri.

The “Baira” Antelope (Oreotragus megalotis)

Native name, Baira

The Baira antelope, which my brother and I believed to be new, was described by Herr Menges (Zool. Anz. xvii. 1894), and called Oreotragus megalotis. Specimens had been submitted by me to Mr. Oldfield Thomas, and he had pronounced it to be new a few days before Herr Menges brought his specimens forward in Germany for the purposes of description.

I first heard of it near Ali-Maan, in the Gadabursi country, among very rugged hills, in the autumn of 1891, when my brother saw two of them, but failed to get a shot. He described them as reddish antelopes, rather larger than the klipspringer, with small straight horns, bounding away among the rocks in exactly the same manner as the klipspringer.

On my last trip the Somális assured me that I should find them on Wagar Mountain and on Negegr, which is its eastern continuation, lying about forty miles south-south-east of Berbera, and rising to between six and seven thousand feet. They said it was nearly as large as an ordinary Plateau gazelle, but reddish; also that it inhabited ground similar to the klipspringer, but was shy and difficult to shoot. This no doubt accounts for no Englishman having shot one, though my brother heard of them so far back as 1891. I could not shoot one, as I had no time to go again to Wagar myself. On leaving the coast on my last trip I sent men in to look for Baira, offering a reward for a good head and skin of a male and female, and gave instructions to my agents in Berbera and Aden to pay the reward and to send me the specimens. Lately I received the two skins and pairs of horns from Aden, and when I submitted them for scientific investigation in London, it transpired that the antelope was new and had just been described.

Grévy’s Zebra (Equus grévyi)

Somáli name, Fer’o

Grévy’s zebra was, I believe, described by the French from a zoological garden specimen, but first shot in Somáliland by Colonel Paget and myself on our simultaneous expeditions early in 1893. I found them at Durhi, in Central Ogádén, between the Tug Fáfan and the Webbe, and about three hundred miles inland from Berbera, and shot seven specimens, all of which were eaten by myself and my thirty followers; in fact, for many days we had no other food, although this was no hardship, for the meat is better than that of most of the antelopes, and is highly prized by the Rer Amáden and Malingúr tribes.

The zebra was very common in the territory of these two tribes. The country there is covered with scattered bush over its entire surface, and is stony and much broken up by ravines; the general elevation is about two thousand five hundred feet above sea-level. Those which I saw (probably not more than two hundred in all) were met with in small droves of about half a dozen, on low plateaux covered with scattered thorn bush and glades of durr grass, the soil being powdery, and red in colour, with an occasional outcrop of rocks. In this sort of country they are very easy to stalk, and I should never have fired at them for sport alone. I saw none in the open flats of the Webbe Valley, and they never come nearly so far north as the open grass plains of the Haud, Durhi south of the Fáfan being, I think, their northern limit. The young have longer coats and the stripes are rather lighter brown, turning later on to a deep chocolate, which is nearly black in adult animals.

On one occasion, after firing at one of a drove of zebras, I was sorry to find, on going up to it, that it was a female, and that its foal was standing by the body, refusing to run away, though the rest had all gone. We crept up to within ten yards of it, and made an unsuccessful attempt to noose it with a rope weighted by bullets, but it made off after the first try. We must have been quite five minutes standing within ten yards of it in the thick bush, while preparing the noose.

Zebras are very inquisitive; when we were encamped for some days at Eil-Fúd, in the Rer Amáden country, the zebras used to come at night and bray and stamp round our camp, and were answered by my Abyssinian mule. The sounds made by the two animals are somewhat similar.

Wild Ass (Equus nubianus somálicus)

Native name, Gumburi

The wild ass is common in sterile parts of Guban, especially to the east of Berbera. In Ogádén its place is taken by the zebra. It is a fine animal and has striped legs. It can scarcely be considered as fair game to the sportsman.

Leopards (Shabél) are very abundant in Somáliland, and are the great scourge of the shepherds. They spring into karias at night without the slightest fear, and nearly all the losses among sheep and goats are caused either by leopards or hyænas. On Gólis Range, round Mandeira, they are especially common, and it is not an unusual thing to hear them coughing by day from the shelter of some cave high up among the mountains. The sound is most like that of a saw being drawn to and fro through a plank, only much deeper, and can be heard at a great distance. Leopards are so stealthy that they are seldom seen by day. The best way to kill one is to wait about among the tribes near the foot of the mountains, and having found a karia that is particularly favoured by them, to construct a shelter and tie up a goat, preferably a half-grown one which will bleat; if the leopard charges the goat, it is best to wait till he is quietly lying over the victim drinking its blood, offering a certain shot. Another way is to find out the cave where the leopard lives, and to tie up a goat just before dusk and sit over it for half an hour.

Leopards are found in all kinds of ground, and not necessarily in hilly country. I have had them spring into my camp more than a dozen times, and once one which could not get over our high zeríba in any other way, ran along the branch of a tree under which our camp had been pitched, and dropped perpendicularly down among us, close to the goats; luckily he was driven off in time by the sentry. Many goats have been killed inside my camp by leopards.

Wart-hog (Phacochœrus æthiopicus). Native name, Dófar.

Outside width in a straight line across tusks, 12¼ inches.

Wart-hogs (Phacochœrus æthiopicus) called Dófar by the Somális, are common, especially along the base of Gólis. Most of the ground which they inhabit is not suitable for hard riding, so when they have exceptionally fine tusks they are shot. The Somáli, being a good Mussulman, will neither touch a dead wart-hog nor the knife which has been used in cutting off the head; and if tempted by a fine pair of tusks to kill a wart-hog, the traveller must be ready to tackle this job himself. It is tough work skinning the head, and it is annoying to have to hang the tin box or bucket, in which the skull has been packed, daily on a camel, to say nothing of preserving the head and cleaning the skull. I have always done this work myself with as pleasant a face as possible, in spite of strong looks of disapproval from the natives; and the few curious wart-hog skulls which I have brought home well repaid me for my labour. It is worth knowing that a Midgán or a starving Somáli may sometimes be bribed to do this unclean work, provided no one is looking on and the matter is kept a secret.

Ostriches (Goreiyu) are occasionally seen in level plains all over the country, especially where the bush is not very thick. They are only numerous in the open prairies. They are terribly shy, and the best rifle to take in hand on seeing an ostrich is the Lee-Metford. As a rule they are seen running along at a great pace at a distance of between eight hundred yards and a mile away, having seen the human beings first. Or they stand perfectly still, with their bodies under cover and their small heads looking over the top of a bush if there is one to be found. In all our journeys my brother and I only succeeded in shooting one cock ostrich each.

Speke’s Gazelle ♂ (Gazella spekei).

Length of horns on curve, 11¾ inches.

In 1891, on the plain south of the Miríya Pass, my brother and I witnessed an instance of the manner in which Midgáns hunt the ostrich. We saw an ostrich and its half-grown chick walking over the bare plain, followed by an unladen camel, behind which were stalking the Midgáns. They said that they had been after the birds since the morning of the day before, and having already killed the female, hoped to get the male bird then or on the following day, and if successful they would catch and rear up the young one. Ostriches are said to be often shot by following them on horseback, the riders being placed in relays along the probable line of flight. They are kept moving by day to prevent their feeding, for they cannot see to move or feed by night, so that in a few days they become weak and are thus easily ridden down. Midgáns often keep a few of them tame, no doubt mostly caught when very young, but I have never seen ostrich farming on a large scale in Somáliland.

The spotted hyæna (Warába) is very common, and the striped hyæna (Didar) rather rare. There is a wild dog called Yei, which the natives say hunts in packs, but I have never seen one. Spotted hyænas prowl round the zeríba of the traveller every night, looking for scraps of meat. I have had goats carried off by them when tethered to the zeríba. Among the karias they sometimes carry off children and kill women, and men found asleep by them alone in the bush are often attacked, the face being nearly always seized and a large piece torn away. So voracious is the hyæna that it often pulls off the tail of a camel or the udder of a cow.

Crocodiles (Jaház) swarm in the Webbe Shabéleh river. There are a few schools of hippopotami (Jér) one of which had its usual abode near Sen Morettu, but I failed to find it, only coming upon the fresh tracks.

There are giraffes (Giri or Halgiri) in the Aulihán country, three days from Burka on the Webbe, but I gave them up for the chance of going to the Arussi Gállas.[55] This differs from the South African giraffe in its markings. The South African form is more spotted; the Somáli form has lighter markings, and the patches of colour are divided into more hexagonal and sexagonal shapes, as pointed out in a letter to the Field by Mr. Rowland Ward in February 1894, who there gave a description of the first one shot in Somáliland by Major C. E. W. Wood.

While on the Webbe I was informed that four buffalo (Jámus), all bulls, had strayed from the Geriré Gálla country through eighty miles of bush, and had taken up their abode in the forest on the Webbe banks at Sen Morettu, four years before my visit to that spot. My informant, a Gilimiss Somáli, told me that his father had killed two of them two years before with poisoned arrows, and that two remained. I found their fresh tracks, the first I had ever seen, and tried very hard for a whole day to get a sight of them. We put them up eight times at a few yards’ distance in the fearfully dense forest without once seeing them, and when we organised a drive next day they broke through the line of beaters and got away, making for the distant Gálla hills. These are the only buffalo I ever heard of in Somáliland. They are said by the Gállas to be plentiful on the Webbe Wéb, a tributary of the Juba, four days distant from Karanleh.

Baboons (Dáyer) are occasionally seen in the rocks round the river-beds, especially in different parts of Guban. My first meeting with these animals was an interesting experience. It was when on my first surveying expedition, and while encamped at Aleyaláleh on the Issutugan river, with an escort of Indian cavalry and mounted police, that I first saw baboons. At this spot the river cuts deeply into a plateau, forming a gully two or three hundred feet deep. A troop of some two hundred baboons came down towards evening from the cliffs, on their way to drink at the stream. Several of the old males were nearly as large as retriever dogs, and had handsome gray manes, which at dusk gave them the appearance of lions. There were several females carrying young ones on their backs, and as the long strings of baboons climbed along the narrow ledges, they kept up a hoarse barking which sounded very like language, and could be heard from a great distance echoing among the hills. They are savage brutes, and take up positions as if to dispute the passage of any one climbing the cliffs; and I have no doubt, with his long teeth and great strength, one of the old males could kill an unarmed man if so disposed.

I had given the troopers some spare cartridges to amuse themselves with, by taking shots at marks, and the native officer, who had been strolling about below the cliffs, fired a shot at an old male baboon and brought him down. I was in camp, and on hearing a hot fire going on, ran out, thinking we were attacked by raiders. It transpired that an Arab camelman had been sent up to the base of the cliffs to get the body of the baboon, and had been attacked by the whole troop from above, having to beat a hasty retreat under cover of the fire from several Sniders, and on my joining the men, another male fell to my Express, tumbling perpendicularly nearly fifty feet down the cliffs. When at last we secured the carcases, I was struck by their wonderfully human-like appearance, and I have never again brought myself to shoot a monkey. I have seen baboons scores of times since, and have never molested them, and as they soon get over their shyness and fear of man, I have been able to watch their habits closely.

Speke’s Gazelle ♀ (Gazella spekei).

Length of horns on curve, average 9 inches.

Besides these maned baboons, we found in the belt of forest on the Webbe banks a maneless baboon and a small tree monkey. In parts of this forest the monkeys and baboons simply swarm. They spring about everywhere above and around the traveller, and the stench is nearly unbearable.

Among game birds the most noticeable are three varieties of the bustard tribe (Salalmadli), three varieties of guinea-fowl (Digirin), partridges, sand grouse, and a wild goose in Ogádén. Birds of prey are very conspicuous, there being at least two kinds of vultures (Gur-Gur) and a small black and white eagle, kites, ravens, and the great black and white carrion storks, which stand about four feet high and have very large orange-coloured beaks.

Jackals (Dowáo), with black and silver backs, are very common; also foxes, a small variety of hare (Bokheila), a badger very like the English kind, two kinds of squirrel, gray and brown (Dabergáli), and the curious little rock-rabbits (Bauna). There is a mouse-coloured animal of the ferret kind (Shók-Shók), which lives under the roots of trees and hunts in packs. Snakes are numerous, three kinds most often met with being an adder (abeso), a variegated rock snake (abguri), and a black snake called muss, all of which are said to be very deadly. There is also a lizard nearly four feet long. Among the insects may be mentioned mosquitoes (Kan-ád)—they are only troublesome, however, on the Webbe and in the Esa and Gadabursi countries; two kinds of gadfly; a large spider (Hangeyu), which produces a web almost exactly like golden silk, which can be found in any old zeríba in the Haud; scorpions, and two kinds of centipede (Hangagári).

APPENDIX I
On fitting out Somáli Expeditions
General Observations

Example I.—Calculation of six weeks’ trip to Guban and Ogo—Composition of caravan, and expenses.

Example II.—Eight weeks’ trip to the Haud and the more accessible parts of Ogádén.

Example III.—Sixteen weeks’ trip to distant Ogádén and the Webbe—General notes on trips to the Webbe and Gállaland—Notes on caravan defence—Notes on preliminary steps, and how to engage and pay off a caravan.

For an English sportsman, Somáliland is probably the best hunting-ground in Africa. The climate is healthy, and not too hot in the higher districts; the English are universally popular, and the natives appreciate sport. The caravan, when once properly provisioned at the coast, renders one entirely independent in a country practically without villages or supplies. The game is shy and not too easy to get, which is an advantage from a sporting point of view. There is room for many simultaneous expeditions if they are only pushed into unexplored ground, and a great variety of game is found within a limited area. Above all, there is easy access to the Somáli coast from civilised parts.

I have been asked so often to give information to intending travellers to Somáliland that, for the guidance of those who contemplate visiting that country, I venture to publish the following suggestions.

It is, of course, not to be expected that every traveller can share the same views on subjects connected with the fitting out of an expedition; but by way of illustration I shall calculate a few examples of the caravans which I would myself organise for certain definite objects. Whether the intending traveller agree with me or not, he will at least gain an insight into some of the more necessary details connected with the needs and precautions attendant upon the fitting out and conducting of caravans into the interior of Somáliland.

To begin with, if there are two or more Europeans in an expedition, in my opinion each should have his own caravan complete. There are several reasons for this. Where there are two or three Europeans with a combined caravan of mixed servants, it is difficult to ensure that equal loyalty shall be extended by the Somális to each member of the party. Interests clash, and the result has, according to all I have heard, too often been a spoilt trip. In my journeys with my brother the value of 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 caravan 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 Somáli 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 Somális.

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 nor bazaars, and where they are almost “put to Coventry” by the natives. Somális 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 Somáli 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 with many tears ask to be sent to the coast. One day, when aggravated beyond all endurance by the Somális, he shouldered his bundle of brass cooking-pots and started, without food or water, to walk across a hundred miles of pathless Haud. Luckily he was tracked up and brought back into camp. It is not necessary to take Indians; for Somális, 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 conditions 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 Somáliland, must be consulted as to the strength of the escort. Permission must be obtained from the same authorities to enter Northern Somáliland at all.

At ordinary times I would 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 would always have a few Somális in attendance, either armed with his spare sporting rifles or with their own spears. An 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, I think from eight to fifteen rifles should be distributed among the followers; and on the Abyssinian border, or in the Gadabursi and Dolbahanta countries, fifteen to twenty rifles. In distant Ogádén, on the Webbe Shabéleh, and on the western Gálla border, I recommend from twenty to thirty rifles, and the same in the unexplored country along the coast east of Karam. For the nearer Gálla tribes south of the Webbe, and for the Aulihán Somális, I should take from thirty to fifty rifles. For a distant exploration into the far interior of Gállaland, likely to be inhabited by hostile natives, were I going on such an expedition, I would not take less than from fifty to one hundred and fifty rifles. These estimates are necessarily very rough, for so much depends on the number of camels to be protected and the number of white men; and in the last case I have given my opinion on evidence obtained from the Somális, and not with any personal experience of the Gálla country itself. The strongest escort I have had at any time in my Somáli trips has been about thirty rifles.

The object of these escorts in all but the last case is to guard against a possible raid by some robber band. Once, to my knowledge, in the Jibril Abokr country, an English sportsman’s camp was, during his absence, sacked by some of these rascals. At night, too, the caravan of an European might easily be mistaken for that of Somáli traders, and in case of an attack it would be awkward, not to say undignified, for the caravan to be incapable of defence. It is very unlikely that the authorities at Aden would allow any traveller to go into the interior without his having made some provision of this sort.

Hostility from any Somáli tribes, as a whole, has not entered into my calculations, because only a large escort, such as I have advised for distant Gálla explorations, could stay in the country in the face of a combined movement of the natives. Even with a large escort the country would soon be rendered uninhabitable by tampering with wells and other expedients which Somális thoroughly understand, and the traveller would be forced to retreat, or advance so rapidly to a more friendly tribe that enemies would have no time to collect. It is with the consent of the natives that we travel, because the English are popular, and no hostility need be feared except the very unlikely chance of an attack by robbers, made probably by mistake. No robbers armed only with spears would, as a general rule, knowingly attack the well-armed caravan of an European. There have, however, been one or two exceptions. The country is only really dangerous to a native traveller, and that it is so the daily police records at Berbera will show.