482 Wanderings in Eastern Africa, 
wilderness in the dead of night ; around me about 
thirty half-nude, swarthy savages were lying, to all 
appearance dead ; the fires blazed fitfully, and threw 
a lurid light over their prostrate forms ; the trees, 
dimly discerned, looked like grim gobhns watching 
over us ; whilst dense darkness and profound silence 
reigned around, and I — I was acting sentinel. But 
before long sleep overcame me, and for awhile I was 
oblivious of everything. When I awoke, feeling un- 
comfortably cold, I sat over the fires to warm myself 
I sat till an intolerable sense of gloom oppressed me, 
when, just as I was thinking of rousing the men, a 
tremendous roar broke the stillness of the night ; a 
lion was within a few paces of us ! It was so near 
and so sudden, that I started as if I had been shot. 
There was something in that deep growl that went 
through and through me. Tofiki was up in an in- 
stant. Seizing our guns and peering into the Cim- 
merian darkness, we tried to make out the brute's form, 
or at least a pair of glaring eyes, between which we 
might drop a bullet to some purpose. We looked in 
vain ; nothing but the dim, shadowy outline of a shaggy 
mane could we see, and it was no use to fire in uncer- 
tainty — to have done so would possibly have in- 
furiated the animal and brought him upon us. Yet 
he could see us, though we coiild not see him, — an 
advantage which was not pleasant to contemplate. 
Again he growled more terribly than before, still we 
could make out nothing distinctly. A third growl 
roused the w^hole party. All sprang to their feet, 
terrified out of all presence of mind, shouting Simba ! 
Simba ! " (lion ! lion !) flying to the trees, ascending 
them like so many monkeys, and perching themselves 
