312 IN THE GRIP OF THE NYIKA CHAP, xxiv 



told me all about the anxious and thrilling time 

 he had had. When he found that the donkeys 

 were too done-up to go on any further he made 

 a boma for them. They were attacked in this 

 hastily-made enclosure by a lion, who was most 

 persistent in his attempts to break through. Two 

 or three times he was driven away, but at last, 

 towards morning, made bolder by his great hunger, 

 he would not be denied, and succeeded in seizing 

 one of the poor brutes, which he dragged off and 

 devoured. 



During the confusion and alarm which followed, a 

 couple of hyaenas made a dash at the elephant's feet, 

 which had been carried on a donkey's back, and 

 dragged them away to some secret lair, where, of 

 course, it was impossible to recover them. 



In addition to the donkey killed by the lion, 

 two more died of exhaustion during the march; 

 Munyakai cut off their tails and brought them to me, 

 to prove that the animals really had died, and not 

 strayed away and got lost owing to carelessness. 



