476 A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



hippopotami not a pound of meat, and but very- 

 little of the hides, was allowed to rot. I do not 

 think that these natives often succeed in enclosing 

 such a large herd, and I fancy that usually the 

 greater part of the animals manage to get out at 

 nights before the dams are completed ; otherwise 

 hippopotami could not be so numerous as they are, 

 both on this river and the Umfule. 



The following day, the 1 6th, we again reached 

 our camp, and found Bokkie and the three Kafirs 

 we haci left there in a great state of excitement, 

 and busy packing up the things, with the intention, 

 in case we did not return, ot sleeping at the native 

 villao-e down the river, because the nipht before a 

 lion had paid them a visit and frightened them con- 

 sicierably. It appeared that in the middle of the 

 night one of the Kafirs had awakened, and sitting 

 up, saw a large male lion standing in the moonlight 

 not ten yards in front of him ; he gave a yell ot 

 fear, and sprang to his feet, upon which the lion at 

 once bolted ; they had then kept up the fires and sat 

 up talking till morning, tearing that their unwelcome 

 visitor might return, which they felt sure he would 

 do to-night. At first I thought the fellow was 

 rather drawing upon his imagination when he said 

 the lion had been so near, but upon asking him to 

 show me the spoor, he pointed out the footprints of 

 a large lion, plainly enough discernible in the sandy 

 ground ; the brute had walked slowly up to within 

 ten paces of the fire, and then turned round and gone 

 off at a run, frightened, I suppose, by the shouting 

 of the Kafir. Upon further examination, I found he 

 had come along a footpath running near the bank of 

 the river, and that evening; I set a orun across the 

 path, hoping that he would return, but he did not. 



