He was therefore evidently in the covert, which we had ringed completely, and there was nothing to be done but to follow him by the blood along these dark alleys till we came on him. We should find one of three things: either the lion would be seen by us alive in the covert, where I hoped to shoot him; or we should find he had bounded away in front of us; or we should find him lying dead. Following a wounded lion into the khansa is very exciting work, because if he charges there is so little room that it is possible one may shoot a man instead of the lion; and also when pressing through with rifle at full cock, the slightest catching of the trigger or hammers in the branches would cause an accident. It is almost impossible to move through these thorns without a sound, and the lion, if he is crouching, can mark your progress towards him, and will certainly see you first.
Moving into the thicket yard by yard, we found where the lion had been lying while we had been walking round him on the outside; and he had got up and bounded away and out of the cover, his pugs on the soft sand outside, where the grass was thin, being over my boot-marks, showing that he had only just gone. We followed this lion for nearly three miles, through glades of grass and dense strips of khansa, taking the precaution to “ring” each strip to ascertain whether he had gone out on the farther side, thereby avoiding much unnecessary danger and loss of time. Many times he had managed to sneak away without being seen when we were close to him; so, as the sun was now hot, and we were very much done up with the hard work, we sat down to consult; we thought also that if we left him sitting in one place long enough to get his wounds stiff, there would be more chance of coming up with him. We decided it would be best for Abokr, Daura, and the Malingúr, with the mule and camel, to follow very slowly on the tracks, thus driving the lion in front of them, while, with my two hunters Géli and Hassan, I made a circuit round to the front, and sat in the grass, ready to fire at the lion in case he should sneak past us. We tried this twice without success; but the third time the party with the camel followed the tracks into a strip of khansa half a mile long, its length being in the direction in which we were going. Under the bushes it was so dark that sometimes we could scarcely see the sights of our rifles. The lion, if lying anywhere in this, would be certain to sneak away under cover, and if I went quickly along outside and sat down where the bushes were thin, as the cover was only about a hundred yards wide, he could not pass without our seeing him.
We ran on along the edge of the jungle, and getting to a thin place we sat down to wait for the slowly-moving men and animals to drive the lion to us. I had scarcely settled down when Hassan gently patted me on the back and pointed ahead, and there was the lion already stealing along in front, limping painfully. The distance was ninety yards, and sitting down and aiming at him over the grass I hit him again, the bullet catching him in his already lacerated forearm. We crouched to see under the smoke, which hung in the damp grass (for there had been heavy rain in the early part of the night), and we heard his growl as he sprang into the mimósas. Hassan spied him again two hundred yards farther on, as we were running to try and keep him in sight, and bringing myself to a halt suddenly and putting up the rifle, I fired again, catching him in the shoulder. He roared again and fell in the bushes. We advanced, and thought he had gone on; and we were about to run after him when Daura, who had come up, pointed him out to me crouching in the thick bushes thirty yards away, his head between his paws. We all stood still, and then as I moved sideways to try and spot him he gave a low growl. I could not see him plainly, but fired into the dark yellow mass which Daura had shown me, and which I believed to be the lion. The shot told loudly as if hitting bone, and all was silent, the yellow patch remaining in the same place. We then walked round the mimósa bush through which I had fired, and found the lion lying on his side, unconsciously gnawing his wounded forearm. As we stood over him he showed signs of reviving, and I gave him another shot. He was a fine lion, and we were very glad at the successful end to our hard work.
Allowing my men to skin the lion, I retired to the shade of a spreading khansa, and opening a haversack which had been brought on the camel, I made a hearty lunch of oryx meat and water. We then put the skull and wet lion-skin on the camel, and after another hour or two, following the tracks of the caravan, we found the camp pitched and my tent ready. My men, of course, all insisted on shaking hands in congratulation. The skin of the lion when pegged out in camp measured nine feet six inches. He was an old fellow, with a good deal of gray in his mane.
We left Géli and Hassan to rest under the trees and watch the skin of the lion, which we had stretched to dry in the hot sun for two hours, and telling them towards sunset to pick up the skin and bring it on to the evening camp, we went on to a place called Dólababa. We made three more marches through an extensive forest of khansa called Dúd Libah, or the “Lion’s Forest,” and in this I knocked over a buck lesser koodoo.
On the 15th we again came among natives, at a place called Tálla. There were five karias here, and the people, who were Rer Amáden, welcomed us warmly. I sat up for a lion in a zeríba, but without success. The people said that lions were eating men daily to the north, at the Malingúr karias a few marches ahead. This was good news, but the sequel was to be a sad one!
Passing through my old camp at Segag, I made a short trip into the Daghatto Valley, but bagged nothing at first, although there were many lion tracks about. While hunting along the river on the evening of the 18th, I shot a beautiful lesser koodoo buck; and returning towards sunset, when nearing camp we detected a lioness in the grass, but she saw us first, and a hurried shot missed her as she bounded away. She had been stalking my camels which were scattered round camp feeding before being driven in for the night.
Four marches more, during which we experienced heavy thunder-storms, brought us to Durhi, the place where, on coming from Berbera, we had found the Malingúr burying a woman who had been killed by a lion. The two large karias between which we had formerly camped were deserted. I made a zeríba outside camp, and sat up unsuccessfully for lions in it on the night of 19th May. My men made a great noise, singing in chorus to attract lions; and Daura Warsama, one of my best men, led the singing, sometimes running out into the dark night and calling, “Libaha káli, kaleiya, Sirkál-ki wa dóneiya!” (Oh, lion, come; the Sahib wants you!) Daura was a fine fellow, whom I had engaged at Bulhár, belonging to the Jibril Abokr tribe. He and the interpreter, Adan Yusuf, were older than most of the men, who were almost boys, and, like many of the Jibril Abokr, in his youth he had been a great raider. He was always full of fun, danced well, and led the men’s amusements, and was the most popular man in camp, as well as the smartest I had out of a particularly good lot. Daura had been with me on five expeditions during 1891-93. On this trip, since we had left Harar, I had given him charge of Rás Makunan’s mule, as he knew a good deal about horses.
Finding the lions had left Durhi, having, no doubt, followed the karias, as lions will, we struck camp next morning and made for Dagaha Madóba,[44] where we expected to find the Malingúr. The whole of the ground between Durhi and Dagaha Madóba appeared to be hidden under an unbroken expanse of khansa bush, covering the low hills and wave-like undulations of the country as far as the eye could reach on every side. Game was plentiful, and we saw Sœmmering’s and Waller’s gazelles, zebra and oryx. I shot two zebras and wounded an oryx in the course of a long hunt which took me several miles to the south-east of the caravan track. When I first came on the zebras at about 9 A.M., Abokr was riding the Arab camel far behind me, and the party with me consisted of my two hunters Géli and Hassan, and Daura Warsama, while I rode my mule. I had been riding armed only with a pistol, Daura carrying my Express rifle; and when we saw the zebras and I dismounted, Daura pushed the rifle into my hands, and jumping into the saddle with a switch in his own hand, took the mule away to the rear to join Abokr, and, as I thought, arm himself with one of the rifles which were on the camel, while Géli, Hassan, and I ran after the zebras.
At the end of the hunt, more than an hour afterwards, while we were cutting up the zebra meat, Abokr came up leading the camel and mule, and looking put out. He said he had caught the mule, which he had found galloping about riderless, and he thought that Daura must have come to some harm from Gálla marauders.