CH. ii 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 



