CHAP. V. LIONS. 271 



ment. Nothing more was heard of it till next afternoon, 

 when two of the hunters saw it rolling on its back in a 

 thicket about two hundred yards off, but the ground 

 being unfavourable they were afraid to fire at it. 



The number of people in my camp was at this time so 

 very large, there being about sixty hunters and upwards 

 of a hundred carriers, besides my own servants, that for 

 the sake of escaping from the continual din, I ordered a 

 new one to be made on the edge of the very thicket in 

 which the honess had been last seen. A space of about 

 twenty yards square was cleared, and the thorn branches 

 thus obtained were formed into a strong and high fence. 

 Two huts were next built, one for myself and my servants, 

 the other for a dozen of the older and more steady 

 hunters ; and as the latter was completed that day I 

 moved into it, my own not being yet sufficiently thatched. 

 Each hut was a long low shed with two small entrances, 

 before each of which a fire was built, and about five yards 

 off a small tree had been left to hang our meat upon. 



In the middle of the night the Kaffir next me awoke me 

 by saying that the lion had come, and I jumped up just in 

 time to see a shot fired from the lower entrance, opposite 

 which my bed was. It met with no response, and must 

 therefore have missed, and the hunter who fu-ed said he 

 only had a glimpse of the brute as it cleared the fence. 

 Umdumela had happened to awake some few minutes 

 before, and wanting to go outside, had just got his head 

 out (the entrance was so low one had to crawl through on 

 all-fours), when he saw the lioness standing under the 

 tree. It at once perceived him and growled, and he turned 

 back for his gun, awaking the next man as he did so, who. 



