XVII 
CAMPING' A T EL BOGOI 
403 
bones of last night’s lion, whose carcase had been thrown out 
for them to eat; and I rested with a relieved mind, confident 
that in the morning we should find our remaining scourge lying 
dead beside my trap. 
And so it proved ; for, on going to see the result of the 
shot, there lay the other lion, dead, just inside the den, from 
which he had been coming out. He had got the bullet in 
the head and dropped on the spot, under the gun. This one 
was rather larger than the first, but of the same type ; both 
were full-grown males. In skinning the last, a .303 bullet, very 
much knocked out of shape, was found in his upper lip. This 
was the shot I had fired in the dark. It had hit the large 
upper canine tooth right in the very centre of its point, smash¬ 
ing the tooth to atoms and indenting the nose of the bullet. 
The lion must have had his head on one side, holding on to the 
donkey, to have received the bullet in such a way. It shows 
how keen he must have been, that even that could not deter 
him nor even spoil his appetite. That morning the donkey 
which this shot had rescued was brought in. It had some 
deepish claw gashes on its hindquarters, but had not yet been 
caught by the neck when let go. What astonished me about 
this experience was the difficulty these lions had in pulling 
down a strong donkey, and the time it took them to kill one. 
I no longer wondered at zebra often getting off with scratches— 
I have often shot them with long scars made by lions’ claws. 
We could now sleep in peace once more, except for the re¬ 
joicings of hyenas, which could do us no harm, over the bones 
of the lions. 
Lesiat and Co. looked with astonishment at seeing two lions’ 
skins pegged out, and thought after all I must have some 
powerful charms. As for my donkeys, we eventually found all 
but four ; they were scattered far and wide, and the last of 
those we recovered were not brought in till a month after. 
Donkeys differ from horses and cattle in this curious respect, 
that when lost they wander about aimlessly in any direction, 
