illness, so was still more cramped for transportation facilities. As we
were breaking camp a lioness leaped to her feet from where she had been
lying under a bush. So near was it to camp that I had not my rifle
ready. She must have been lying there within two hundred yards of our
tents, watching all our activities.

We drew into V.'s boma a little after two o'clock. The man in charge of
our tent did not put in an appearance until next day. Fortunately V. had
an extra tent, which he lent us. We camped near the river, just outside
the edge of the river forest. The big trees sent their branches out over
us very far above, while a winding path led us to the banks of the river
where was a dingle like an inner room. After dark we sat with V. at our
little camp fire. It was all very beautiful--the skyful of tropical
stars, the silhouette of the forest shutting them out, the velvet
blackness of the jungle flickering with fireflies, the purer outlines of
the hilltops and distant mountains to the left, the porters' tiny fires
before the little white tents; and in the distance, from the direction
of V.'s boma, the irregular throb of the dance drum and the occasional
snatch of barbaric singing borne down on the night wind from where his
Wakambas were holding an n'goma. A pair of ibis that had been ejected
when we made camp contributed intermittent outraged and raucous squawks
from the tiptop of some neighbouring tree.

FOOTNOTES:

[23] This is an interesting fact--that she reared to strike instead of
springing.

[24] It must be remembered that this beast had the evening before killed
a 350-pound hartebeeste with ease.