128 After Big Game in Central Africa 



sides. . . . Reaching the tree we found one of our 

 companions with the rifle cocked, another trying to 

 relight a half-extinguished torch. . . . Still the lions 

 walked. . . . We guessed them coming and going in 

 the darkness. 



At that moment Tambarika whispered to us the 

 advice to imitate the p'umpis (wolves) in the 

 distance. So we immediately began barking and 

 shouting, " Hu ! hu ! hu ! " in an undertone, as 

 though the pack was still at a distance, while the 

 man at the camp made the same well-imitated cry. 

 The effect was instantaneous. There was a rapid 

 gallop in the dry leaves : the lions decamped. 

 The more or less well-imitated approach of a pack of 

 wolves rid us of them for the whole night. We 

 returned to the camp with our honey, and nothing 

 troubled our tranquillity until morning. 1 



This is what probably happened. I believe that 

 these lions simply wished to drink, and that they 

 prowled around and examined us more or less in a 

 bad temper. My men, on their side, fell from their 

 tree, being unable to remain in it, and, their light 

 having gone out, they were in a rather trying- 

 situation. As to myself, though I did not find 

 this sortie on a night as black as a forest and with 

 lions around me at all to my taste, I could not 

 fail to go to my men's assistance. I was even 

 morally obliged to do so. My feelings, when one of 

 the lions roared and I could not see three yards before 



1 Hunters generally use the wolf cry for calling to one another in 

 the woods. 



