130 THE LAND OF THE LION 
nooses of kongoni sinew, laid down in the grass; maraboo 
and vultures entangle their feet in them, as they come to 
feed on the carrion) whose feathers they covet, then the 
chances of the lion returning to the kill are but slight. 
Generally a lion will return next night to his kill, often 
staying there till quite late in the morning. Even if he 
goes away at daylight, he will lie up at the nearest water 
or in some brush hard by. You can, in this way, get some 
idea of his whereabouts and often get a shot. 
Or, the natives may locate him in some favourite ravine, 
where several lions, will often for quite a long time, take up 
their quarters. Or, again, the Massai may have tracked 
the great cattle thief to some family refuge in a kopji, 
and you might be weeks in the neighbourhood without 
discovering it. There are, in short, a great varietyyon 
ways, in which you can get aid and information from the 
local native and be sure and use him when youcan. You 
must be prepared, however, in the first instance, to be often 
denied all information. I suppose the tribes have their 
own reasons for this cause of action, for it is very common, 
but I could never discover it. “The N’dorobo, for instance, 
who may be very meat hungry, when you first see them, 
and who are living meagrely on honey and meat stolen 
from lion ‘‘kills,” are likely to assure you, when you ask 
if there are many lions round, that there are none within 
three or four marches. In a week these same N’dorobo 
will haunt your camp, crowd to your fire, till you have 
to drive them away, and bring their sick to get “dowa” 
(medicine). 
If there are many of these hunting ‘‘wild men,” as the 
other tribes call them, in your neighbourhood, better come 
to an understanding with them about this matter of “‘kills.”’ 
Promise to give them a kongoni now and then, if they will 
leave all kills alone, and come to you as soon as they find 
one. If some such arrangement is not made with them, 
