XVII CAMPING AT EL BOGOI 397 



that there would be a better chance of the bait proving an 

 attraction. 



There happened to be some Ndorobos from a distance at 

 my camp, in addition to Lesiat and a number of his people ; 

 and these strangers asked permission to eat the donkey, having 

 no prejudices against the meat such as Lesiat's tribe professed 

 to entertain ; so I allowed them to cut up and remove it, and 

 I then set my gun just beyond where it had been, supposing 

 that to be the direction from which the lions would be likely to 

 come should they return. Not that I felt sure they would 

 come again at all, seeing that they had been disturbed before 

 getting even a mouthful of their victim and had not attempted 

 to return during the night on which it had been killed, although 

 that had occurred so early in the evening. As the event proved, 

 they did come again ; but not past my gun at all. There were 

 a considerable number of Ndorobos in my camp that night, and 

 Juma and his men had returned, so we were quite a large party. 



Having done all that could be done, and not expecting 

 anything to happen, at all events for some time, as soon as it 

 got quite dark I sat down to have my evening porridge (I could 

 no longer dignify the meal with the name of dinner now that 

 meat was an unknown quantity on my board, owing to my 

 being unable to hunt). The camp was quite astir with men 

 and natives sitting talking as usual about their fires. Hardly 

 had I got seated, and before I could take a second spoonful, 

 the donkeys suddenly burst out of the new " boma " ; and im- 

 mediately after, amid shouts from the numerous occupants of 

 the camp, there was the sound of one of the poor brutes being 

 choked by our enemy, not fifty yards from my hut. I was 

 standing just outside, rifle in hand, and all crowded round me. 

 Aided by their judgment (their ears were better than mine, 

 though not their eyes), I calculated the exact direction whence 

 these ghastly sounds were issuing ; to see anything was out of 

 the question, for not only was it very dark, but the scuffle was 

 going on among some brushwood. 



