36 PEACE: LION HUNTING 



eight or nine o'clock in the morning, he imitated 

 the lion, " Whoof, whoof, whoof — neemai ! " (the 

 lion) ; then showing the sun still up in the late 

 afternoon, " Whoof, whoof, whoof/' he called out 

 again, " neemai ! " (the lion) ; this was his way 

 of explaining that the lions about there were so 

 plentiful and bold that even well after sunrise 

 and before sunset they are still roaring, and, as 

 Wellington said of the French cavalry on the 

 ridges at Waterloo, " walking about as if they 

 owned the place." However, it was settled that 

 we would work up to Mokoya. 



Having arranged for three of Libebe's boys to 

 come with me as far as Mokoya, we made our 

 first camp about ten miles away, where a little 

 local storm had left water in a small vley. There 

 I shot a couple of sassaby, and sent back the meat 

 of one as a little present for the old chief. The 

 previous season's crops in this district had 

 apparently been only moderate, and as the 

 inhabitants were not too well off for food, a large 

 and self-invited family soon collected round me : 

 at one time as many as forty-four persons travelled 

 with me on the chance of meat. 



About this time a two days' run of particularly 

 vile shooting occurred, and unaccountably I 

 missed several easy shots at big buck. The wait- 

 ing and expectant niggers in camp could hear the 

 rifle-shots in the distance, and returning empty 

 handed made me feel more than a little ashamed 

 before the many reproachful and hungry eyes of 



