BRITISH EAST AFRICA 195 



The Colonel's wife got lost and the Colonel himself 

 charged by a buffalo, "but that," as Kipling remarks, 

 " is another story." 



I went up to my eland's carcase the next morning, 

 to see if a lion had been near, and within fifty yards 

 of our camp found the tracks of a lion and lioness. 

 Following these, we found that the lion had sneaked 

 up through the bushes and passed within six inches 

 of the back of my tent. If I had put out my hand 

 I could have touched him ! I was sound asleep and 

 never heard a movement. Burton said he meant to 

 have me but didn't like the smell of my hair-wash, 

 which was distinctly rude, and not true as I had none ! 



There were a lot of vultures round the spot where 

 I had left the eland, and on getting up to it we 

 found the tracks of three lions. The carcase itself 

 had vanished. We tracked the lion which had taken 

 the meat, hoping to find him gorged. Under a thorn- 

 bush, flanked by grasses and overhung by bower-birds' 

 nests, too dainty a place for so coarse a meal, we 

 found the remains of the eland. I had never quite 

 realised the enormous strength of a lion until I 

 saw the fore-quarters, spine, a portion of the hind- 

 parts and some skin and offal fully a quarter of a 

 mile from the spot where we had left them ! 



Whilst we were tracking this beast, the porters 

 whom we had left some distance off saw a lioness pass 

 within a few hundred yards, going slowly up the hill. 

 It was most annoying to know that there were so 

 many about and never to..]pe able to get a shot at one. 



