THE "MAN-EATER" 231 



Darkness sets in about 6 P.M. ; and though I ventured by 

 myself only sixty yards from my hut, I found next morning, 

 that for the second time I must have been pretty close to the 

 man-eater, as his track was but six inches from mine. I real- 

 ised, how the merciful God had twice that day preserved me 

 from death. Soon afterwards, news was brought me, that the 

 man-eater had just attempted to carry off a woman at the nearest 

 Wanyoro village, but was driven off, presumably with firebrands, 

 by men who happened to sit near her. This alarming news was 

 shortly followed by my cow stampeding. She was tied to a peg, 

 close to the Soudanese watch-fire. Tearing herself loose, she 

 bolted like mad. She never stopped until she reached a distant 

 village, whence she was returned to me next day. The Soudanese 

 on guard declared that he saw the lion crouching and trying to 

 spring upon the cow, when, fortunately, she just tore herself 

 loose in time and escaped. It was too dark for him to aim, or 

 he would have fired his rifle. 



The general excitement was increasing, when suddenly 

 terrific screams of pain arose from the Soudanese village, fol- 

 lowed by soldiers firing off their rifles in every direction, under 

 the belief that they had seen the man-eater here, there, and every- 

 where. The brute certainly seemed ubiquitous. I felt uncom- 

 fortable at the thought that the bullets might knock some of us 

 over, but, with the help of the native officers, we put a stop 

 to this haphazard shooting, which was endangering our lives 

 more than the man-eater's. On hurrying to the scene of the 

 screams, I found that the man-eater had entered a hut, the 

 door having foolishly been left open, and had tried to carry 

 off one of our Soudanese soldiers. The huts are crowded to- 

 gether, and have a reed-fence round each, and narrow paths 

 and winding entrances lead to each separate enclosure. It 

 was therefore no easy matter, even for a lion, to carry off its 

 prey. Owing to the general hubbub the lion had dropped the 

 man. As in the Tsavo case, I was fortunately at hand to dress 

 the wounds. There were ten of them. A scratch, about two 

 inches long, had spUntered the heel-bone. I removed a piece of 

 bone about the size of a shilling. This was one of the minor 

 wounds, the worst were in the thigh. The man ultimately made 

 a good recovery, and so did the woman who was injured earlier. 



To allay the excitement and to calm the people, I told them 

 / would kill the lion next day. The natives were not surprised 



