78 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER CH. 



though I followed the spoor for two days, I failed, 

 owing to the grassy nature of the country, to come 

 up with them at all, the cunning brutes seeming to 

 know that they were being hunted and making off 

 at once on our approach. 



In July, 1905, I had occasion to send a couple of 

 my men from my camp on the banks of the Rovuma 

 River to Songea, about eight days' journey distant, 

 and some thirty miles on their way, they arrived 

 and decided to put up for the night at Gwia's village, 

 where, so the inhabitants informed them, lions had 

 recently accounted for nine lives. They slept by 

 themselves in a hut, in the centre of which they had 

 kindled a large fire, Majemba lying on one side of 

 the fire and Hyiah on the opposite side, nearest the 

 door ; and paying heed to the warning they had 

 received on the score of man-eaters, they took 

 particular care before retiring, to secure the door 

 as strongly as possible. About three o'clock in the 

 morning, the door was violently burst in, and before 

 my men exactly knew what had happened, a lion 

 seized Hyiah by the thigh and proceeded to drag 

 him out of the hut. Immediately, Majemba, who 

 had been awakened by the commotion, seized his 

 rifle and fired at the brute, luckily putting a bullet 

 in the region of his heart, whereupon the animal 

 instantly dropped Hyiah and cleared into the 

 surrounding bush. At break of day, the villagers 



