78 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. 
though I followed the spoor for two days, I failed, 
owing to the grassy nature of the country, to come 
up with them at all, the cunning brutes seeming to 
know that they were being hunted and making off 
at once on our approach. 
In July, 1905, I had occasion to send a couple of 
my men from my camp on the banks of the Rovuma 
River to Songea, about eight days’ journey distant, 
and some thirty miles on their way, they arrived 
and decided to put up for the night at Gwia’s village, 
where, so the inhabitants informed them, lions had 
recently accounted for nine lives. They slept by 
themselves in a hut, in the centre of which they had 
kindled a large fire, Majemba lying on one side of 
the fire and Hyiah on the opposite side, nearest the 
door ; and paying heed to the warning they had 
received on the score of man-eaters, they took 
particular care before retiring, to secure the door 
as strongly as possible. About three o’clock in the 
morning, the door was violently burst in, and before 
my men exactly knew what had happened, a lion 
seized Hyiah by the thigh and proceeded to drag 
him out of the hut. Immediately, Majemba, who 
had been awakened by the commotion, seized his 
rifle and fired at the brute, luckily putting a bullet 
in the region of his heart, whereupon the animal 
instantly dropped Hyiah and cleared into the 
surrounding bush. At break of day, the villagers 
