32 THE MAN-EATERS OF TSAVO CH. in 



some one or other of these, and regularly every few 

 nights a man was carried off, the reports of the 

 disappearance of this or that workman coming in to 

 me with painful frequency. So long, however, as 

 Railhead Camp with its two or three thousand 

 men, scattered over a wide area remained at 

 Tsavo, the coolies appeared not to take much 

 notice of the dreadful deaths of their comrades. 

 Each man felt, I suppose, that as the man-eaters 

 had such a large number of victims to choose from, 

 the chances of their selecting him in particular were 

 very small. But when the large camp moved ahead 

 with the railway, matters altered considerably. I 

 was then left with only some few hundred men to 

 complete the permanent works ; and as all the 

 remaining workmen were naturally camped to- 

 gether, the attentions of the lions became more 

 apparent and made a deeper impression. A regular 

 panic consequently ensued, and it required all 

 my powers of persuasion to induce the men to stay 

 on. In fact, I succeeded in doing so only by 

 allowing them to knock off all regular work until 

 they had built exceptionally thick and high bonias 

 round each camp. Within these enclosures fires 

 were kept burning all night, and it was also the 

 duty of the night-watchman to keep clattering half 

 a dozen empty oil tins suspended from a convenient 

 tree. These he manipulated by means of a long 



