236 WAR : CAMPAIGNING IN EAST AFRICA 



hunter : " When the Hon roars, every beast in the 

 veld must stand still and the natives too must 

 hold their breath/' These lions continued roaring 

 close by till the first sign of the coming light. I 

 tried the old joke, " Moosa, fetch me some water." 

 No answer. " Moosa, fetch me some water from 

 the creek." (The askaris and porters now begin to 

 titter.) " Do you not hear, Moosa ? " At last 

 a small answer, " Bwana ngopa simba M (Master, 

 I fear the lions). 



Not far from the camp we passed the lions' kill, 

 a young wild sow, the head of which — and that 

 was mostly death grin — alone remained amongst 

 the trampled and stained grass. Alas ! poor 

 P^gy y she must have made just some little slip 

 in her watchfulness, perhaps rooting just a trifle 

 too greedily, and then in a flash the great cats 

 had her. I doubt, however, if even a couple of 

 lions, much less a single one, are keen on tackling 

 a real old man boar, whose long sharp tusks 

 (you can see the shining ivories sometimes ioo 

 yards off) make him particularly dangerous to 

 such soft-skinned enemies. Besides, when bailed 

 up, no braver fellow walks the bush than " Billy 

 the Boar." 



Near the main Malema-Mozambique road we 

 came into K.A.R. 2nd Column, and thence onwards 

 I was working under Colonel Gifford, a splendid 

 chief. This column of his can well be said to have 

 been the one bright feature of the Portuguese 

 campaign on our side. It certainly bore the 



