nearly three days, as it cut straight across country instead
of winding round the hills. In the evening we camped
on the other side of the Voi river, over which several
excellent bridges had been built. When I reached camp
the headman in charge of the rear-guard rushed up out of
breath and said that one of the men in chains had died.
I asked if he was quite certain that the man was really
dead. “ Oh, yes,” was the ready reply. Thereon I gave
the headman the key to unlock the fetters, and sent two
askaris with picks to bury the body; I gave them, however,
a bottle full of cold water from the river, and
recommended them to throw it on the face of the corpse
before burying it. Later in the evening the supposed
corpse turned up alive.
There was intense excitement in the. camp, and I was
much amused to hear the comments of my men on the
occurrence. “ Well,” said the headman whom I had sent
to bury the dead man, “ when we got there we found the
fellow dead and already stiff; the other men of the chain
gang saw him drop dead, and so did the askaris of the
rear-guard. I turned him around and shook him, but, as
I just told you, he was dead, absolutely dead. Then I took
some of the 1 dawa ’ (medicine) the Bwana Nkuba (the
great master) had given me, and threw it over the dead
man’s body and face. He shook himself, and after I had
poured out a little more over him, he opened his eyes and
stared at us. We all ran away, but he stood on his legs
and called out to us to let him have some water to drink.
When we came back to him there he was alive once more.
He told us himself that he had been dead, and recollected
that just after he died he was greeted by the spirits of
his departed relatives ! “ Mawe, Mawe ! ” (oh, mother, oh,
mother!) exclaimed all the hearers, “ can’t the master
make good ‘ dawa’ (witchcraft). Fancy his merely taking
water from the river and bringing a dead man back to life
with i t ! ” “ But,” replied the headman, “ I saw him do it,
arid while he poured out the water in the calabash he
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spoke some words and put some very strong medicine in
it.” The fact was that, as I suspected the man had fainted
from a sunstroke, I had mixed a little liquid ammonia with
the water; but all my men thoroughly believed that I had
caused the man to be resuscitated. The following day we
had a very long march, as no water was to be found until
we reached Maungu, some 25 miles from the river Voi.
Ih e country we crossed was covered with dense thorny
bush. Towards noon David noticed a few gazelles, and
suggested that I should go and shoot one of them; but I
scorned the idea, saying that nothing would induce me to go
inside that bush except a rhinoceros or a lion. I had no
sooner said this than we heard two lions roaring quite close
by: as a rule lions do not roar in the day-time except
when they are over a kill. I therefore made sure that I
should find them feeding on the carcass of some animal,
and that at last I should be able to shoot a lion. But I
was disappointed in my expectation. I crept inside the
bush, followed by David ; the vegetation was so dense that
we had to go on all fours, leaving a considerable portion of
our clothes sticking on the thorns. We soon found the
fresh spoor of the lions, but getting to an open space lost
the spoor there, as the-ground was harder than under the
trees. I sent David to the right to find the spoor while I
went to the left. As I was looking round I noticed, thirty
yards ahead of me, a huge tree, and at the foot of it what
looked like a broken trunk : it seemed to be moving, and
as I looked more carefully I discovered that it was not a
trunk but a huge lion looking at me. His head was resting
on his paws, the body was hidden behind the tree. To fire
at a lion’s head is most risky, as it is convex, and the bullet
may glance off; besides, the wind was blowing from behind
him, and his mane formed a huge aureole, in the middle of
which glared his eyes. I was going carefully round so as
to obtain a view of his body, and be able to give him a side
shot, when David came rushing towards me. The lion
jumped up, and before I could aim disappeared in the dense
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