AFRICAN GLADIATORS: A WONDERFUL SOMALI WAR DANCE
One of the most striking dances in the Somali repertoire, called the "Bororoma-Boromsi" dance. Surrounded by an ever-restless chanting chorus of spearmen, the two combatants — one attacking fiercely with cutlass, the other defending desperately with his small Somali shield — seem to be in grim and deadly earnest, and none would believe them to be at play.
THE LAST SCENE: THE DUSKY VISITOR APPEALS TO CÆSAR
The defender sinks to the ground and abjectly craves mercy, while the chorus, dancing more madly, chant "Boromsi Boromsa." The conqueror pins his victim and prepares to give the final blow but, like an ancient gladiator, turns to the spectators to ask the beaten one's fate
HUMAN PELICAN IN THE WILDERNESS
Men take their ease as they do their pleasure in many different ways. This, the favourite attitude of rest adopted by the Somalis, seems to have been chosen in imitation of the birds
LION-SPEARER AND MAN-HUNTER
This Issa tribesman, on the Somali track to Abyssinia, is fonder of men than of his lion cubs. Lions he kills; cubs he keeps for profit; but men he hunts for sport, tallying his kills by brass rings on his spear-shaft