CHMvP a ER 
THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF THE MAN-EATERS 
UnrortunatELy this happy state of affairs did not 
continue for long, and our work was soon interrupted 
in a rude and startling manner. Two most voraci- 
ous and insatiable man-eating lions appeared upon 
the scene, and for over nine months waged an inter- 
mittent warfare against the railway and all those 
connected with it in the vicinity of Tsavo. This 
culminated in a perfect reign of terror in December, 
1898, when they actually succeeded in bringing the 
railway works to a complete standstill for about three 
weeks. At first they were not always successful in their 
efforts to carry off a victim, but as time went on they 
stopped at nothing and indeed braved any danger in 
order to obtain their favourite food. Their methods 
then became so uncanny, and their man-stalking so 
well-timed and so certain of success, that the work- 
men. firmly believed that they were not real animals 
at all, but devils in lions’ shape. Many a time the 
