XVII 
CAMPING AT EL BOGOI 
399 
powers that they insist on imputing to one in spite of himself 
—were unavailing to prevent the lions playing havoc with my 
donkeys. Subsequently, I believe, I recovered their good 
opinion, but, unfortunately, not all my donkeys. Explanations 
of my inability to see in the dark were considered inadequate, 
and any allusion to my crippled hand was coldly received ; 
some manifestation of supernatural powers was clearly expected 
of me. 
But what I most objected to, and was at last constrained 
to protest against, was Lesiat’s wild statements about the 
danger we were in, calculated as they were to increase the 
uneasiness of my already frightened men. He asserted that 
the lions were certain to attack us, and held out the cheering 
prospect of our all being eaten eventually, one by one ; escape 
would be impossible, since we should be followed up remorse¬ 
lessly whithersoever we might attempt to retreat. At last, out 
of patience with his unmanly conduct, I told him I could do 
no more that night, but that I was prepared to make an effort 
in the morning, and asked if he could spoor the lions by 
daylight. To this he replied that he would unfailingly track 
them to their hiding-place and show me where they were. No 
doubt he did not expect me to ask him to fulfil this promise. 
At all events, when, as soon as day had dawned, I turned 
out with my rifle and sent Juma to summon him, he flatly 
refused to move a step in the direction in which the carcase 
had been dragged, declaring that he was going to look for the 
other donkeys. His line of argument was similar to that of 
a formerly well-known character among South African gold 
prospectors, of whom it is told that, when asked to join in a 
lion hunt in a remote part of the Transvaal bush veldt, where 
the prospectors’ pack-donkeys were being preyed on, he declined 
on the ground that “ He hadn’t lost no lions.” Even of 
searching for the lost asses Lesiat made but a poor pretence, 
he and his men returning in a short time to make a formal 
declaration that none could be found, and then going their ways 
