90 THE LAND OF THE LION 



Wanyamwazi have already learned from the Somali, and 

 which they call the "Lion Song." Fully a mile from our 

 camp my gunboys raised the song, and when we were still 

 so far away, that the men's figures seemed but little moving 

 dots the porters heard it and came streaming out to meet us. 

 My men had put green sprigs in their hats; the porters who 

 ran to meet us stuck greenery in their woolly hair and 

 danced round us, as bearing the great skin, my little party 

 marched proudly as they camp into came. If I had had bad 

 luck finding the lion until now, fortune did what she could, 

 during the next few days to make up to me for past disfavour. 

 The day after I had shot my first lion I was up betimes as 

 usual in the morning, but saw nothing. But the day after 

 that I came on a band of nine. My gunbearers and I had 

 reached a place about six miles from camp when, as we were 

 crossing a hard red earth ridge, Brownie noticed a faint sign 

 and took it up. When we came to a dewy patch of short 

 grass, it showed quite fresh, and was joined by a second. A 

 little later a third came to company, and the men con- 

 cluded we had come on the sign of a band of lions that were 

 gathering to a point, a rendezvous they have made after 

 they have been hunting in a long and extended line. I have 

 never been able to see lions doing this, but I think that when 

 they hunt in packs there can be no doubt as to the method 

 they usually follow. Perhaps one or two keep uttering at 

 intervals the deep resonant grunt or roar. This alarms the 

 game, and makes it run hither and thither, if it cannot get 

 the lion's wind and these, hunting up wind, take good care 

 that this is impossible. The rest of the band hunt silently 

 and the stampeded zebra, or kongoni, rush near enough to 

 some of them come within the range of the lion's short but 

 terribly swift charge. When rain has fallen, it is often 

 possible to read in the morning quite plainly, the story of 

 the oft-repeated tragedy of the night. There closely clumped 

 lay the zebra, some lying down, others on the watch, and ia 



