SITTING UP AT NIGHT FOR LIONS 
35 
turn to watch, when I noticed the donkey suddenly prick 
up his ears and stare away into the darkness. There was 
not a sound to be heard in the jungle, save the everlasting 
chirp of crickets, and the hum of some large beetles as they 
flew through the air from bush to bush. The donkey stood 
rigid, but although I strained my eyes through the port- 
hole, I could see nothing. Suddenly a large gray phantom 
appeared before my eyes some 20 yards from the donkey. 
I was aware that a lion was watching the ass intently. 
I waited and waited, but the gray image did not move. 
At last I thought I must act, so, pushing the rifle out of 
the porthole, I stared down the barrel, but, alas ! I saw 
nothing. The large gray mass had disappeared. The 
donkey put down his ears, nodded his head, and soon 
afterwards lay down. Nothing else transpired, and having 
been thoroughly well bitten by mosquitoes, I awoke to And 
it very cold, and the ground covered with dew. It was 
about 5 a.m. when we made our way out of the tiny zareba, 
and, on walking round, we found that a large lion had 
come within 20 yards of the donkey, but, owing in all 
probability to the moonlight night, he had either noticed 
something unusual about the zareba or had got our wind. 
At any rate, he had not had the courage to make his deadly 
spring, for he must have seen the donkey. 
At seven o’clock some of my men arrived to see what 
had transpired during the night. They were accompanied 
by the guide who had directed us to this haunt of lions, 
He was mounted on his charger. We then determined to 
track the lion, so ten of us started with two ponies. We 
tracked that lion’s spoor from seven till eleven over miles 
of country, but not a ‘ blence ’ of him rewarded our exer- 
tions. The natives frequently sat down and consulted with 
the fates by counting off beads on a string, and the fates 
kept on saying we should kill something ; but they were 
not good enough to vouchsafe what that something would 
be. At length we lost the spoor altogether, and after a 
long council of war we decided to return, as we were now 
3—2 
