146 SPORT IN THE EASTERN SUDAN 



and only 10 feet from the ground. A stone fell, 

 a twig cracked, and the animal was obviously recon- 

 noitring the machan from immediately beneath. 

 Meanwhile, I got my hand on to the butt of my 

 revolver, in case he had a fancy for closer acquaint- 

 ance. The brute next moved round to the goat, 

 which went into a regular paroxysm of terror, and 

 must have stood in full view within 5 yards of the 

 beast, but of course I could see nothing. Finally it 

 went off, and must have again reconnoitred the goat 

 from below, the unfortunate animal responding in the 

 same fashion as before. Deciding, however, in the 

 end that the enterprise was more dangerous than it 

 appeared, it went off, and was seen and heard no more. 

 But next morning we found the tracks of a lion 

 literally all round the machan and the goat, wherever 

 it was possible to get a good view of either. As the 

 lion obviously now knew too much to be easily 

 tempted, I decided to try to track him up, and 

 after chota hazri went with the shikaris and took up 

 the trail, which was not very hard to follow, as the 

 lion had obviously patrolled a strip of low thorn, etc., 

 along the high bank above the machan. After pro- 

 ceeding about half a mile or less I noticed a number of 

 crows on the right, and there found first of all clear 

 footprints of the lion, and afterwards a large quantity 

 of blood. I whistled up the shikaris, and we presently 

 found the body of a young male koodoo, freshly 



