TRACKING A LION 
179 
When order was at length restored, two men brought in 
news of lions. Not believing it true, we sent two men to 
investigate, and waited the whole of the next day in camp 
for their return. Proceedings were enlivened by a fight 
between my shikari and a camel-man, but luckily we got 
them separated before any serious damage had been done. 
The men sent out to get news returned at dusk reporting 
the lion story to be, as usual, a lie. However, excitement 
was caused by the men bringing in a silver-backed jackal 
which got caught in one of my traps. Amid howls of glee 
half a dozen Somalis did him to death as they thought 
with hangols (crooked sticks used in building zarebas). 
Five minutes after the jackal got up and ran away, and 
although pursued by some twenty Somalis, he evaded them 
all and eventually escaped 1 
Soon after a lion ^ shouted ’ about a mile off. He kept 
moving west, evidently following a caravan. We kept 
double watches that night in case he should come to our well 
for a drink, but, unluckily, he did not favour us with a visit. 
Soon after daybreak next morning two men ran in with 
news that the lion had ^ jumped up ’ at their village and 
taken a sheep. After a hasty breakfast, we started with 
our shikaris, ordering four camels to follow with tents, 
cooking gear, and water for two days. W e cantered across 
the plain, and arrived at the village in four hours. We then 
took up the lion s spoor into the dense jungle. After three 
hours’ tracking through dangerous grass and thick thorn- 
bush, we unfortunately followed the track of the night 
before instead of the morning, with the result that we 
worked back to the village again instead of going away 
from it. When our mistake was first made we must have 
been very close to the lion. We pitched camp at a place 
called Abori. 
12—2 
