34 
SOMALILAND 
other, a large male, had parted from them. We followed 
the big one, of course. The sun was now right above us, 
and the heat in consequence intense. The jungle was as 
still as death. I could only hear the tramp, tramp of the 
pony as he was led some yards in our rear. We crept 
along, peering into every bush, when, from the base of an 
ant-hill, up jumped an enormous lion with an angry ‘ whuff.’ 
But before I could get my rifle to my shoulder he had dis- 
appeared at a quick ambling trot among the thick bushes. 
After following for a short time, his spoor was met by and 
crossed by that of two other lions. We followed the un- 
disturbed ones now until my shikaris voted that we should 
return to camp, and quietly come back and tie up a donkey, 
building a small zareba there in which to sleep at night. 
I suspected, however, that the thickness of the bush and 
the fact that we possessed but one pony frightened them, 
and that theyr wished to beat a retreat out of sheer funk. 
I argued with them for some time. I tried to persuade 
them that, as we had at length found lions, we had better 
stick to the spoor and not leave' it till night, wBen they 
would in all probability be miles away. 
However, eventually I had to give in to them, much 
against my will, and returned to camp feeling very sullen 
at the thought of having a couple of cowardly shikaris with 
me. I spent the afternoon catching butterflies, and in the 
evening I went down to the little zareba I had ordered to 
be built in the middle of the lion tracks. Such a snug 
little place they had made, and so like the surrounding 
thorn-bushes, that I did not observe it until I was within a 
few feet of it. One of my men who had been engaged 
building it now produced a young dik-dik which he had 
caught alive in the grass. We tried to rear this pretty 
little antelope on milk, but it would not touch it, and as it 
was evidently dying, I put it out of its misery. 
My two shikaris and I took turns to watch the donkey 
tied up as a bait for a lion outside the zareba. We watched 
it through a little porthole made on purpose. It was my 
