394 
ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA 
CHAP. 
and see them shut safely into their “ boma,” slept in the goods 
shed. 
On the night in question, namely, that of 25th June, about 
9.30, I had just gone to sleep when I was awakened by the 
sudden rush and rumble made by the troop of donkeys break¬ 
ing out of the kraal and stampeding. In the “ bara ” 1 one 
acquires the habit of sleeping, as it were, with one eye (or, at 
all events, one ear) open, so that any alarm or commotion 
arouses you in an instant and you instinctively spring out of 
bed and seize your rifle. From bitter experience I had learnt 
the advisability of having mine ready to my hand, and always 
placed it (loaded and with cartridges in the magazine) on two 
upright forked sticks—driven into the ground between my bed 
and the tent wall—so that it lay horizontally in a position to 
be handily grasped at once, alongside of me. On hearing the 
commotion, I knew at once it must be a lion, and ran out with 
the rifle in my left hand. The moon, somewhat past the full, 
had lately risen. 
Maftaha, not realising the situation, had gone out empty- 
handed, with the usual Swahili stupidity ; and as I got round 
he was just going to look into the kraal, but on getting opposite 
the gate he started back with a cry of “ Ah! Simba ! ” at the 
same moment that the lion gave a growl. The men were all 
gaping, no one thinking of his gun till I rated them for their 
idiocy. I, the while, was fumbling with my game hand at the 
breech of my Lee-Metford, and making a hash of trying to get 
a cartridge into the barrel (I had moved the bolt as I came 
out with the idea of making quite sure that the cartridge was 
in the breech all right this time ; and, owing to my right hand 
being maimed, it had flown open and the cartridge out). I 
could hear a donkey kicking on the ground in the kraal, and 
1 This Swahili word is said to be derived from the Arabic one signifying coast. It 
is, however, used to denote the wild interior as distinct from the civilised maritime region, 
and its resemblance to the Zulu word “ ibala ” is at least a curious coincidence. The 
latter is often used in much the same sense ; thus the locative form “obala” (Zulu) or 
“ ebaleni ” (Swazi) means “ in the open or uninhabited country.” 
