CHAP. Ill A TERRIFYING BEAST 45 



How often has not the single word " Simba," 

 ** Tauw," " Shumba," " Silouan," or any other native 

 African synonym for the Hon, sent the blood tingling 

 through the veins of a European traveller or hunter ; 

 or when whispered or screamed in the darkness 

 of the night in a native village or encampment, 

 brought terror to the hearts of dark-skinned men 

 and women ! 



When met in the light of day, a lion may be 

 bold and aggressive, retiring, or even cowardly, 

 according to its individual character and the circum- 

 stances under which it is encountered ; but no one, 

 I think, who has had anything like a long experience 

 of the nature and habits of these great carnivora 

 can doubt that by night, particularly on a dark 

 rainy night, a hungry lion is a terrible and terrifying 

 beast to deal with. 



One day towards the end of the year 1878, my 

 friend Mr. Alfred Cross left our main camp on the 

 Umfuli river in Mashunaland, and taking an empty 

 waggon with him, went off to buy corn at some 

 native villages about twenty miles distant. That same 

 afternoon he outspanned early near a small stream 

 running into the Umfuli, as a heavy thunderstorm 

 was threatening. A kraal was made for the oxen, 

 behind which the Kafir boys arranged a shelter for 

 themselves of boughs and dry grass as a protection 

 from the anticipated downpour of rain. They also 

 collected a lot of dry wood in order to be able to 

 keep up a good fire. The waggon-driver, a native 

 of the Cape Colony, made his bed under the waggon, 

 to the front wheel of which Mr. Cross's horse was 

 fastened. As one of the hind oxen kept breaking 

 out of the kraal, it was tied up by itself to the hind 

 yoke close in front of the waggon. The trek chain, 

 with the other yokes attached to it, was then 

 stretched straight out along the ground in front of 

 the waggon. Soon after dark the thunderstorm, 



