HARD TIMES 211 



I could hear one of my men, formerly an old 

 German askari, telling the others that " that was 

 no leopard; that is a Shensi who has got some 

 medicine/' These people implicitly believe that 

 the man-eating lion or leopard is a native in 

 disguise, who has turned into the African 

 equivalent of our werwolf. They say that the 

 ordinary bush Hon is a Hon right enough, but that 

 the man-eater is a man temporarily transformed. 

 Often afterwards I discussed this with my Makua 

 boy, Moosa, and others, and they seemed most 

 interested when I suggested to them the melting 

 down of some rupees to make silver bullets as the 

 only sort to prove effective against these Walk- 

 o' -Nights. 



Next morning at daylight Henocksberg was 

 sent back on a rough stretcher with eight porters 

 and some askaris, whose orders were to impress 

 as extra bearers every Shensi they could catch, 

 and to hasten by forced marches north to Muiriti 

 boma, about five days away. At that place a 

 large Portuguese camp had been made, and a 

 doctor might be found there. I heard months 

 later, with great delight, that Henocksberg made 

 a wonderful recovery. 



As for that cursed leopard, the very next night 

 it killed a woman in the nearest village only six 

 miles away. From the local people I learnt a 

 good deal of the history of this particular beast — 

 the most daring man-eater I have ever heard of. 

 It began killing people on the Msalu river before 



