58 PEACE: LION HUNTING 



not believe his eyes when he understood that I 

 did not intend to shoot the eland ; his expression 

 of horrified astonishment and disgust at thus 

 seeing meat and fat in the shape of a huge buck 

 being left on the veld was really ludicrous, and 

 I should like to have been able to translate what 

 his excited chatter meant. My boys never could 

 understand the pleasure I took in merely watching, 

 without any desire to kill, the big buck. On this 

 last trip in particular I fear I got into bad odour 

 with my hunters for stalking close up to and 

 watching a little herd of giraffe without shooting 

 one. There was a magnificent bull in this parti- 

 cular mob ; a still prettier sight was a cow 

 with a quite small calf at foot, the tiny fellow 

 striding alongside his mother like a little thorough- 

 bred. 



At last, one morning before sunrise two lions 

 began to approach the camp, or rather, I expect the 

 vley, some ioo yards or so away, keeping up a con- 

 tinual and steady roar. I used to camp generally 

 fifty or sixty yards from my mob of natives, with, 

 of course, a fire of my own. It was necessary to 

 get some distance from them, as they always kept 

 up a continuous chatter half through the night. 

 Between my fire and the various fires of the boys 

 we used to tie, for safety, the old mule and pack 

 ox. I was lying awake that night listening to the 

 noise of the lions, which seemed to be coming 

 steadily nearer, when my little cook boy, Secumba, 

 came running across to where I was lying (I took 



