LION HUNTING ON THE KAPITI PLAINS 81 



down the trail in the bright silver light, chanting in deep 

 tones, over and over again, a line or phrase that sounded 

 like: 



"Zou-zou-boule ma ja guntai; zou-zou-boule ma ja guntai." 



Occasionally they would interrupt it by the repetition in 

 unison, at short intervals, of a guttural ejaculation, sound- 

 ing like "huzlem." They marched into camp, then up 

 and down the lines, before the rows of small fires; then, 

 accompanied by all the rest of the porters, they paraded up 

 to the big fire where I was standing. Here they stopped 

 and ended the ceremony by a minute or two's vigorous 

 dancing amid singing and wild shouting. The firelight 

 gleamed and flickered across the grim dead beasts, and the 

 shining eyes and black features of the excited savages, 

 while all around the moon flooded the landscape with her 

 white light. 





