332 IN AFRICA 



The boma method is slightly more dangerous and 

 much more exciting. A lot of thorn branches are 

 twisted together in a little circle, within which the 

 hunter sits and waits for his lion. As in the tree 

 method, a bait is placed near the boma, twelve or 

 fifteen yards away, and a little loophole is arranged 

 in the tangle of thorn branches through which the 

 rifle may be trained upon the bait. 



The Boma Method 



The lion can not get into the boma unless he 

 jumps up and comes in from the top. It is the 

 function of the hunter to prevent this strategic 

 manoeuver by killing the lion before he gets in. If 

 he does not, he is likely to find himself engaged in a 

 spirited hand-to-hand fight with an unfriendly lion 

 in a space about as big as-the upper berth of a sleep- 

 ing-car. 



My first boma was a meshwork of thorns piled 

 and interwoven together with the architectural sim- 



