256 THE MAN-EATERS OF TSAVO CHAP. 
thorn, and waved gracefully in the breeze; a fancy 
waistcoat adorned another spiky branch, and _ his 
long white cotton gown was torn to ribbons in his 
mad endeavour to put as great a distance as possible 
between himself and the dead lion. As soon as I 
could stop laughing, I called out to him to come 
down, but quite in vain. There was no stopping 
him, indeed, until he had reached the very top of 
the tree; and even then he could scarcely be in- 
duced to come down again. Poor fellow, he had 
been thoroughly terrified, and little wonder. 
My followers now began to emerge from the 
shelter of the various trees and bushes where 
they had concealed themselves after their wild 
flight from the resuscitated lion, and crowded round 
his dead body in the highest spirits. The Masai, 
especially, seemed delighted at the way in which he 
had been defeated, and to my surprise and amuse- 
ment proved themselves excellent mimics, some 
three or four of them beginning at once to act the 
whole adventure. One played the part of the lion 
and jumped growling at a comrade, who immediately 
ran backwards just as I had done, shouting “ Ta, 
Ta, Ta” and cracking his fingers to represent the 
rifle-shots. Finally the whole audience roared with 
delight when another bolted as fast as he could to 
Roshan Khan's tree with the pseudo lion roaring 
after him. At the end of these proceedings up came 
