206 THE MAN-EATERS OF TSAVO cu. xvi 
for myself—to remain absolutely alone for hours on 
a vast open plain beside the carcase of a dead 
lion, with vultures incessantly wheeling about 
above one, and with nothing to be seen or heard for 
miles around except wild animals. It was a great 
relief, therefore, when after a long wait I saw 
Mahina approaching with half-a-dozen practically 
naked natives in his train. It turned out that he 
had lost his way back to me, so that it was lucky he 
found me at all. We lost no time in getting back 
to camp, arriving there just at sundown, when my 
first business was to rub wood ashes into the skin 
and then stretch it on a portable frame which I had 
made a few days previously. The camp fire was a 
big one that night, and the graphic and highly 
coloured description which Mahina gave to the eager 
circle of listeners of the way in which we slew the 
lion would have made even “ Bahram, that great 
Hunter,” anxious for his fame. 
