CHAP. v. LIONS. 267 



large trees under which the vegetation was particularly 

 rank. I whispered to Usikoto that I thought the tread 

 was too light for a buffalo ; and on his asking leave to fire 

 in the direction, I at once gave it, and stood clear of the 

 flash, so as to see anything he might disturb, but, to our 

 surprise, not even a rustle succeeded the report, and after 

 waiting a few seconds to see whether the sound would be 

 repeated, we returned to camp, where the impression was 

 that it must have been a hyena, though I, though without 

 any idea of what it really was, silently differed, on the 

 ground that if so we should have heard it rush away when 

 Usikoto fired. 



In the middle of the night the camp was roused by 

 two consecutive shots fired from the part exactly behind 

 where I was, and as we were in a sort of half expectation 

 of an attack from some outlawed Dutch boers with whom 

 we had already had a conflict concerning our equal right 

 with them to these hunting-grounds, the panic was tre- 

 mendous, and one which it was fortunate the Dutchmen 

 did not see. On going round to the other side I found a 

 sharp contest going on among the hunters, those who had 

 been wakened by the shots pitching into the men who had 

 fired them for causing unnecessary alarm, when it was 

 only a prowling hyena which they had heard, while they 

 contended that it was a lion, and dared their reprovers to 

 go out in the dark and look, and although three-fourths 

 of the camp said " Bah, it was a hyena," no one stirred. 



From what they told me I very much doubted it being 

 a hyena. One man had wakened during the night and 

 had heard the noise of crunching and tearing at some 

 buffalo-meat hung up on a fallen tree, the trunk of which 



