xviii TROUBLED BY LIONS 393 



made short trips on foot into the " fly," hoping to 

 find elephants along the Umniati, Sebakwe, and 

 Se-whoi-whoi rivers, but here too we were disap- 

 pointed, and never even saw a fresh spoor. At 

 Gwenia I was fortunate enough to bag a lioness. 

 One Saturday evening Cross and I walked over from 

 the river Se-whoi-whoi to old Jan Viljoen's waggons 

 at Gwenia, hoping to hear some news from the 

 Matabele. Mr. Viljoen, we found, was still away 

 huntingr with his son and sons-in-law on the other 

 side of Intaba Insimbi, but we were most hospitably 

 received by his wife and nieces, who regaled us ad 

 lib. upon bread and butter, and buttermilk, an 

 indescribable treat to us who had been so long 

 strangers to such luxuries. The old lady informed us 

 that they had been much troubled by lions during 

 her husband's protracted absence, they having twice 

 attacked the cattle in broad daylight, killing two 

 cows and two young oxen ; she told us, too, that 

 one had been prowling about the kraal for several 

 nights past, and had caught two of the best dogs. 

 Of course, we hoped we might have a chance of 

 coming to conclusions with the marauder, but scarcely 

 looked for such luck. That evening a calf was 

 missing, and though we searched both up and down 

 the river we neither saw nor heard anything of it. 

 The following day was Sunday, and it must have 

 been about ten o'clock in the morning, when, as 

 Cross and I were sitting in the hut, talking to 

 Mrs. Viljoen, we suddenly heard loud screaming and 

 shouting, and one of my Matabele boys came running 

 up with the gun of my waggon-driver (a Griqua 

 named Jantje, who was with us), calling out, " Isilouan, 

 isilouan ! lions, lions! — the lions have caught a 

 woman ! " Luckily my gun and cartridges were in 



