CHAP. IV 
GOVERNMENT EXPLORATIONS 
103 
shoulder. 1 My brother probed them with a bit of stick wrapped 
in a shred of tobe ; and then we looked around for the lions, 
and saw that they were no longer visible ; but E — — said that 
all the horsemen had followed them, intending to ride them to a 
standstill and force them to come to bay. 
My wounds, owing probably to the severe shock and weak- 
ness from loss of blood, gave me no pain, and when a Somali 
came galloping back and offered my brother a pony, saying that 
the lions had come to a standstill, I begged him not to bother, 
but to try and bag the big black one. I remember hearing 
E — — gallop away, and then I must have fainted. 
When I came to again, I saw my hunter, Jhma, sitting near 
me on the body of the lioness, unconcernedly scrubbing his 
teeth with a bit of athei stick. He said he had been waiting for 
me to wake, and to tell him what was to be done next. The 
other “ Sahib ” had gone away, but J4ma had heard a distant 
shot, and concluded he must have come up with the lions again. 
But he advised me to wait for the caravan, which he could see 
coming over the plain from the east, and mount a camel before 
trying to go any farther. 
When it came up, all the men crowded round, with horror 
on their faces, and asked which of the Sahibs had been killed, 
but I got up and said, “ Neither,” and mounting a camel, 
directed the camelman to follow the hoof-marks of the ponies 
in the turf. How I managed to sit on the camel in my weak 
and dazed condition, I do not know. I must have dozed, for 
the next thing I saw was a group of dismounted horsemen in 
front of my camel, and my brother standing over the most 
splendid black-maned lion I have ever beheld. 
I attribute my not having stopped the lioness to the fact 
that I had been shooting with a very good .577 double rifle, 
but in the course of our journeys the triggers had become rather 
stiff, making me jerk them off ; and both bullets, going low, 
had passed through the brute’s right foot, making small clean 
wounds, without expanding. E •, who had his gun open and 
was pushing in a fresh cartridge, had been horrified to see both 
my shots strike the ground beyond the lioness. 
Our two hunters, unlike most Somhlis, who are not generally 
a bit afraid of lions, had retired to a little distance. E said 
that after firing the second shot I had jumped to the right in a 
1 Although at the present time I am not much inconvenienced by the 
wounds, my right arm and shoulder are very deeply scarred. 
