CHAPTER XV. 



THE "MAN-EATER." 



LIONS have occasionally been met with and shot at Mom- 

 basa, and I shot a lioness at Fajao, a thousand miles 

 J from the coast. Between these two extreme points there 

 are, as might be expected, certain localities where the 

 sportsman anxious to bag a lion has a better chance of finding 

 one. As a general principle, lions follow the big game, and 

 wherever zebras, antelopes, and gazelles abound, lions are not 

 far off. 



Some travellers never cross the game-stocked Athi plains 

 without seeing lions ; the late Mr. Dick once saw fourteen of 

 them, and it is reported that a score of lions have been seen 

 together at one and the same time. I have crossed the Athi 

 plains six times without seeing a live lion ; though once I 

 picked up the fine skull of an aged lion at the Stony Athi, 

 hyaenas having just devoured the king of beasts. On another 

 occasion, when the grass was about three feet high, I was 

 stalking a waterbuck near the Athi river, when my gun-bearers 

 declared they had seen a lion switching his tail and disappearing 

 into the adjoining copse, and they persuaded me to keep from 

 the gloomy thorn copse at a respectful distance. 



On my fourth journey, I was warned by the missionaries 

 at Kibwezi not to camp at Ngomeni, because a man-eating 

 lion was haunting the neighbourhood. I had at the time 

 amongst my porters a man who had camped at Ngomeni a 

 few weeks before with another caravan. According to his 

 story, he must have had a wonderful escape, for the lion 

 pounced on him, and carried off his blanket and the tiny tent 

 under which he lay sheltered. The porter however escaped un- 

 hurt. From Kinani to Ngomeni is twelve miles, but my caravan 

 were in such a dread of spending the night at Ngomeni, that 



