202 SPORT IN THE EASTERN SUDAN 



which must have approached within considerably 

 less than 50 yards of the camp. It at once sent my 

 two Hindustani servants to join the four camel-men 

 inside the zareba. As the shikaris with their donkeys 

 were the other side, I took over a gun for them. 

 They say that afterwards their donkeys saw the lions 

 distinctly, but there was no moon, and they were 

 invisible to human eyes. I ignited a magnesium 

 torch as a notice to quit, and afterwards slept with 

 two loaded guns by my bed, and two lamps lighting 

 up the nabbuk ; I had kept a revolver under my 

 pillow all the time, but understood that it is unheard- 

 of for lions in the Sudan to actually raid an encamp- 

 ment, though on this occasion they came very near 

 doing so. In the morning we looked for their tracks, 

 and found them clear enough in the river-bed, but 

 the black cotton-soil is the worst possible medium for 

 receiving impressions. Finally I spent the morning 

 erecting a machan behind the camp, some 100 yards 

 off, in the hope that the lions would again recon- 

 noitre us. In the evening I tied up a goat and sat in a 

 fig-tree, about a quarter of a mile above camp, but 

 without result. After dinner I went to the machan. 



April kth. The night passed without incident. I 

 spent the early morning looking mainly for reed- 

 buck in the maya ; and stalked up to within 70 yards 

 of the same buck as the day before yesterday, but 

 again did not shoot. Later on I disturbed what 



