CH. vii] A MASAI KRAAL 165 



injured her spine. Over she rolled, growling savagely, 

 and dragged herself into the watercourse ; and running 

 forward, I finislied her with two bullets behind the 

 shoulder. She was a big, fat lioness, very old, with 

 two cubs inside her ; her lower canines were much 

 worn and injured. She was very heavy, and probably 

 weighed considera})ly over three hundred pounds. 



The light was growing dim, and the camp was eight 

 or ten miles away. The porters— they are always much 

 excited over the death of a lion — wished to carry the 

 body whole to camp, and I let them try. While they 

 were lashing it to a pole another lion began to moan 

 hungrily half a mile away. Then we started ; there 

 was no moon, but the night was clear, and we could 

 iguide ourselves by the stars. The porters staggered 

 ! under their heavy load, and we made slow progress ; 

 most of the time 'I'arlton and I walked, with our 

 double-barrels in our hands, for it was a dangerous 

 ineiglibourhood. Again and again we heard lions, and 

 itwice one accompanied us for some distance, grunting 

 occasionally, while we kept the men closed. Once the 

 porters were thrown into a panic by a succession of 

 steam-engine-like snorts on our left, which announced 

 ithe immediate proximity of a rhino. They halted in a 

 huddle while Tarlton and I ran forward and crouched 

 [to try to catch the great beast's loom against the sky- 

 line, but it moved off. Four miles from camp was a 

 iMasai kraal, and we went toward this when we caught 

 the gleam of the fires, for the porters were getting 

 exhausted. 



; The kraal was in shape a big oval, with a thick wall 

 ^f thorn-bushes, eight feet high, the low huts standing 

 lust within this wall, while the cattle and sheep were 

 prowded into small bomas in the centre. The fires 



