86 After Big Game in Central Africa 



I let the expedition start, telling my comrades not to 

 hurry, and to wait for me at a certain spot on a fixed 

 date if I have not overtaken them. 



I proceed to the village of Kamsikiri, on the Ponfi, 

 where the lion has been reported to me, arriving there 

 in the evening. The chief tells me that he has 

 received orders and that there are many men ready 

 to set out with me in the morning. The lion, which 

 has already on his conscience the deaths of two 

 women, a man, and some dogs, continues the series 

 of his exploits that very night. The night is as black 

 as pitch, and he profits by it to break open the low 

 roof of a hut, and after having killed the five goats 

 inside, eats one of them on the spot, being unable to 

 carry it off. He does all this without the least noise. 

 All the goats are bitten either on the neck or on the 

 withers, but nowhere else, from which it is evident 

 that the lion has been only playing with them. His 

 lair is situated a short distance from the village, 

 and the natives have made two "battues" without 

 seeing him in the dense beds of reeds where he 

 hides. 



In the morning I observe that out of eighty men 

 seventy-two have cap-guns. My first impulse is 

 not to accompany them, because I know that kind of 

 " battue " ; it was not the first at which I had assisted, 

 and I was determined that the former occasion was to 

 be the last. I have asked the men to leave their 

 weapons at the village ; but they have answered, 

 naturally, that they need them in case of danger, a 

 reason which seems very just at first but is worth 



