76 THE EAST SIDE OF RUWENZORI 



in Ruwenzori, where they had been feeding on the 

 berries of a podocarpus. 



Sometimes there was a visitation of Hons. One 

 morning a boy came in with a very scared face, 

 saying that he had just seen a very big lion in the 

 grass down in the valley, and shortly afterwards 

 the mutilated remains of a large wild boar, off which 

 the lion had been dining, were brought in ; it was 

 remarkable that only the hind-quarters of the animal 

 had been touched : there was not a mark on its head 

 or back to show that it had been killed by a blow. 

 On another occasion a party of lions elected to spend 

 a ' week-end ' pig-hunting in the valley. Between 

 Saturday and Monday they killed four wild pigs 

 within half a mile of the camp, and, according to 

 those who were there at the time, the shrieking of 

 the unhappy victims was most terrible to hear ; there 

 was no moon at the time, and the vegetation was 

 too dense to make lion-hunting by candle-light an 

 attractive amusement for anybody except the lions. 

 Leopards, although they were but seldom seen, were 

 always with us, and, if one may believe the word of 

 the goatherd, they showed a nice discrimination in 

 disregarding the sheep and goats of the natives in 

 favour of ours. 



The natives, who belonged to the Bakonjo tribe, 

 were invariably friendly, and, as well as being 

 naturalists, were useful to us as porters and as 

 providers of some of our food. They live in neat 

 round huts built of grass stems on a framework 



