THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA 



the fresh Hon tracks, that we had seen below, my gun 

 bearer jokingly remarked to me that perhaps two Kikityu 

 men had been fighting here, having torn off each other's 

 beads. When I suggested that a lion might have killed 

 a man here, he stoically said: " Labda, Bwana " (" Per- 

 haps, sir) ? " No sooner had we reached the little govern- 

 ment forestry station, than we heard that the very even- 

 ing before a man-eating lion had killed a Kikuyu on this 

 very spot. But owing to heavy rains during the night, 

 the blood marks and other possible signs of the struggle 

 had been washed away. 



This government official told me that it very probably 

 was the same man-eater, an old lioness, which had killed 

 a number of people in the district, finally growing so bold 

 that it would come up to within a few yards of his own 

 house to try to slay some of his workmen. One dark even- 

 ing four of his men wanted to go to a spring about a 

 hundred yards from his house to get some additional water. 

 They were warned not to go by their employer, but said 

 they would all take spears and torches, so that there would 

 be no danger. They subsequently went, but none of them 

 ever returned! The ferocious lioness succeeded in killing 

 all of them, and dragged the bodies of two away into the 

 dense bush, where a few days later their crushed skulls 

 and a few bones were all that was left! In vain the of- 

 ficial tried to shoot or trap the lioness, for fear of which 

 his wife and baby for days never dared to leave the house. 

 But finally one moonlight night, when a goat was tied 

 close to the house and the bloodthirsty brute was in the 

 very act of springing on its easy prey, it was killed by 

 two well-aimed shots, fired from the open window, and 



42 



