CHAP. v. LIONS. 233 



and, on examination, I found that it was one of the boys 

 who had come into camp that evening. They were, as I 

 have said, Ama tonga ; and as there is no love lost between 

 them and the Zulus, of whom and of neighbouring kindred 

 tribes my men were principally composed, they had been 

 compelled to sleep by themselves, on the outside of the 

 rest, and thus this unfortunate lad had become the man- 

 eater's prey. We carried him into camp, and examined 

 his injuries. The lion had merely bitten him ; had not 

 used its claws at all ; but what a bite it was ! It had 

 held him by the neck and shoulder, and literally crushed 

 the whole of the side of the chest in, and had probably 

 damaged the spinal cord, for he never recovered con- 

 sciousness, and breathed his last a few hours after. 



This sad event prevented any of the excitement and 

 rejoicing that the death of such an animal would have 

 generally occasioned, and the men, though mostly unable 

 to sleep, conversed quietly and in whispers during the 

 remainder of the night. Death, however, is so common 

 in a country where fever reigns, and in a profession which, 

 like that of a hunter, entails the risk of almost hourly 

 meeting it, that the next day brought no change in the 

 usual employment of the day ; and I, accompanied by one 

 hunter and my water-bearer, started at daylight to hunt. 

 We soon saw from the spoors that the buffalo had been 

 for some time on the ground in large numbers, and 

 scarcely a mile from camp we crossed the fresh track of a 

 herd, which, after drinking at the river, had struck across 

 the plain for the cooler knolls beyond. 



Two hours' hard walking brought them into sight, 

 lying scattered under some trees on the ridge above us, 



