THE "MAN-EATER" 



233 



Sunday equivalent to the Soudanese who are Mohammedans 

 and who have consequently had this day conceded to them as 

 their day of rest. First of all we made a firm stockade of stout 

 perpendicular poles ; to these we lashed tree-stems laid hori- 

 zontally one on top of the other ; finally we planted an outer 

 row of poles, perpendicular like the first row, firmly and deeply 

 into the ground. This gave us the sides of the cage. The top we 

 closed in with horizontally laid tree-trunks, on to which we piled 

 large heavy stones, till we felt satisfied that the fiercest lion could 

 not possibly break out of this cage. The trap-door consisted of 

 seven heavy blocks of wood fastened together horizontally on 

 top of each other, and held in position by short perpendicular 

 pieces on both sides. So far all went smoothly. But never 

 having constructed a wild-beast trap before, I was seriously 

 puzzled, how to make the trap-door act. 



There is something in this Robinson Crusoe life which 

 stimulates the most uninventive intellect. It was an unplea- 

 sant predicament that, unless I found some means, the cage 

 would very shortly 

 be ready, and I 

 placed in the ridi- 

 culous position of 

 not knowing, how 

 to make the trap 

 work. Inspiration 

 came at last. I 

 had asked the 

 native officers, the 

 Soudanese soldiers, 

 the Swahili porters, 

 my Arab servant, 

 and the Wanyoro 

 onlookers, to find 

 out, if any one 

 could help me. They 

 calmly assured me, 



that they had never built a trap ; in vain I told them — nor 

 had I. But I hit on the following plan. I constructed a 

 sort of picture-frame, the trap-door resting in the forked ends 

 of the two perpendicular pieces. Attaching a rope to the 

 middle of the lower horizontal stick, even a slight tug with- 



THE LION-TRAP COMPLETED. 



