394 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA chap. 



and see them shut safely into their " boma," slept in the goods 

 shed. 



On the night in question, namely, that of 25th June, about 

 9.30, I had just gone to sleep when I was awakened by the 

 sudden rush and rumble made by the troop of donkeys break- 

 ing out of the kraal and stampeding. In the " bara " ^ one 

 acquires the habit of sleeping, as it were, with one eye (or, at 

 all events, one ear) open, so that any alarm or commotion 

 arouses you in an instant and you instinctively spring out of 

 bed and seize your rifle. From bitter experience I had learnt 

 the advisability of having mine ready to my hand, and always 

 placed it (loaded and with cartridges in the magazine) on two 

 upright forked sticks — driven into the ground between my bed 

 and the tent wall— so that it lay horizontally in a position to 

 be handily grasped at once, alongside of me. On hearing the 

 commotion, I knew at once it must be a lion, and ran out with 

 the rifle in my left hand. The moon, somewhat past the full, 

 had lately risen. 



Maftaha, not realising the situation, had gone out empty- 

 handed, with the usual Swahili stupidity ; and as I got round 

 he was just going to look into the kraal, but on getting opposite 

 the gate he started back with a cry of " Ah ! Simba ! " at the 

 same moment that the lion gave a growl. The men were all 

 gaping, no one thinking of his gun till I rated them for their 

 idiocy. I, the while, was fumbling with my game hand at the 

 breech of my Lee-Metford, and making a hash of trying to get 

 a cartridge into the barrel (I had moved the bolt as I came 

 out with the idea of making quite sure that the cartridge was 

 in the breech all right this time ; and, owing to my right hand 

 being maimed, it had flown open and the cartridge out). I 

 could hear a donkey kicking on the ground in the kraal, and 



^ This Swahili word is said to be derived from the Arabic one signifying coast. It 

 is, however, used to denote the wild interior as distinct from the civilised maritime region, 

 and its resemblance to the Zulu word ' ' ibala " is at least a curious coincidence. The 

 latter is often used in much the same sense ; thus the locative form "obala" (Zulu) or 

 " ebaleni " (Swazi) means "in the open or uninhabited countrj'." 



