LION HUNTING ON THE KAPITI PLAINS 93 



I made out the form of the lioness showing indistinctly 

 through the grass. She was half crouching, half sitting, her 

 head bent down; but she still had strength to do mischief. 

 She saw us, but before she could turn I sent a bullet through 

 her shoulders; down she went, and was dead when we 

 walked up. A cub had been seen, and another full-grown 

 lion, but they had slunk off and we got neither. 



This was a full-grown, but young, lioness of average 

 size; her cubs must have been several months old. We 

 took her entire to camp to weigh; she weighed two hundred 

 and eighty-three pounds. The first lion, which we had 

 difficulty in finding, as there were no identifying marks in 

 the plain of tall grass, was a good-sized male, weighing 

 about four hundred pounds, but not yet full-grown; al- 

 though he was probably the father of the cubs. 



We were a long way from camp, and, after beating in 

 vain for the other lion, we started back; it was after night- 

 fall before we saw the camp-fires. It was two hours later 

 before the porters appeared, bearing on poles the skin of the 

 dead lion, and the lioness entire. The moon was nearly full, 

 and it was interesting to see them come swinging down the 

 trail in the bright silver light, chanting in deep tones, over 

 and over again, a line or phrase that sounded like: 



'* Zou-zou-boule ma ja guntai; zou-zou-boule ma ja guntai." 



Occasionally they would interrupt it by the repetition in 

 unison, at short intervals, of a guttural ejaculation, sound- 

 ing like "huzlem." They marched into camp, then up 

 and down the lines, before the rows of small fires; then, 

 accompanied by all the rest of the porters, they paraded up 

 to the big fire where I was standing. Here they stopped 

 and ended the ceremony by a minute or two's vigorous dan- 

 cing amid singing and wild shouting. The firelight gleamed 

 and flickered across the grim dead beasts, and the shining 

 eyes and black features of the excited savages, while all 

 around the moon flooded the landscape with her white light. 



