cH. 1 APPEARANCE OF THE MAN-EATERS 21 
coolies solemnly assured me that it was absolutely 
useless to attempt to shoot them. They were quite 
convinced that the angry spirits of two departed 
native chiefs had taken this form in order to protest 
against a railway being made through their country, 
and by stopping its progress to avenge the insult 
thus shown to them. 
I had only been a few days at Tsavo when I first 
heard that these brutes had been seen in the neigh- 
bourhood. Shortly afterwards one or two coolies 
mysteriously disappeared, and I was told that they 
had been carried off by night from their tents and 
devoured by lions. At the time I did not credit 
this story, and was more inclined to believe that the 
unfortunate men had been the victims of foul play 
at the hands of some of their comrades. They 
were, as it happened, very good workmen, and had 
each saved a fair number of rupees, so I thought it 
quite likely that some scoundrels from the gangs 
had murdered them for the sake of their money. 
This suspicion, however, was very soon dispelled. 
About three weeks after my arrival, I was roused 
one morning about daybreak and told that one of 
my jemadars, a fine powerful Sikh named Ungan 
Singh, had been seized in his tent during the night, 
and dragged off and eaten. 
Naturally I lost no time in making an examina- 
tion of the place, and was soon convinced that the 
